Re: Dinosaurs to birds

["Raymond Thaddeus C. Ancog" <rayancog@pacific.net.ph>]

Philidor11@aol.com wrote:

>I remember a documentary in which cheetahs (?) were shown to be descended
from
>a very few mating pairs after some ancient catastrophe; something about the
>amount of genetic variation over time.  Though the amount of time from KT to
>now is a lot longer, does this approach help answer the question about the
>number of survivors in a given species?

But did you know that cheetahs have a low genetic diversity which accounts
for their high abnormal sperm count and susceptibility to disease? Unless
mutations drastically expand the gene pool, the species is highly
vulnerable. Probably on a time scale of millions of years, sufficient
mutations would have achieved this (but this is something for the
geneticists to answer).


Raymond Thaddeus C. Ancog
Mines and Geosciences Bureau
Philippines