Re: Proto-penguins lived with dinosaurs

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

60 my old DNA?!?!  That would be a new survival record for *testable* DNA
sequences!  Why wasn't that aspect of the story emphasized?  And isn't
the previous intact DNA record holder the Neanderthal DNA from 30 Kya?

And how sure are they that these "penguins" are of the modern penguin
lineage?

<pb>
--
"We recognize, however dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and security
may come at a substantial price in freedom, that law and order can be a
doublethink version of oppression, that individual liberties surrendered,
for whatever good reason, are freedoms
lost." - Walter Cronkite, preface to the 1984 edition of George Orwell's
1984.




On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 18:03:59 +0000 bh480@scn.org writes:
> From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
> 
> In case these news stories have not been mentioned yet:
> 
> http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3628684a7693,00.html
> 
> Penguin fossils world's oldest 
> 06 April 2006  
> By MATTHEW TORBIT
> 
> Four fossilised penguins discovered in a Canterbury 
> riverbed have been confirmed as the world's oldest remains 
> of the species. 
> 
> 
> Scientists believe they could be the missing link that 
> proves modern birds lived alongside dinosaurs. 
> 
> Dna tests on the Waimanu penguin fossils, found near the 
> Waipara River, have determined they are between 60 million 
> and 62 million years old - or up to 10 million years older 
> than any other penguin remains discovered. 
> 
> They lived in the shallow seas off eastern New Zealand 
> just after dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years 
> ago. 
> 
> An Otago University geologist, Associate Professor Ewan 
> Fordyce, said modern theory was that most modern bird 
> groups evolved after the dinosaurs died out. 
> 
> "By using the dates from the fossil Waimanu penguins as a 
> calibration point, we can then predict how far back in 
> time the other groups of living birds originated. If early 
> penguins lived in southern seas not long after the 
> extinction of dinosaurs, then other bird groups more 
> distantly related to penguins must have been established 
> even earlier." 
> 
> The findings - to be published in the international 
> journal Molecular Biology - suggest many groups of living 
> birds originated well back in the Cretaceous period, 
> between 65 million and 144 million years ago, when 
> dinosaurs were thriving. 
> 
> Professor Fordyce expects the fossils to receive huge 
> overseas attention. "These proto-penguins were about the 
> size of yellow-eyed penguins and probably looked a bit 
> like shags. 
> 
> "It's very unlikely that they could fly, but their wing 
> bones were compressed and dense, which would allow their 
> wings to be used to swim underwater." 
> 
> The fossils were found in the mid-1980s but have only 
> recently been properly examined and dated. 
> 
> Professor Fordyce said New Zealand's marine fossil record 
> was one of the most abundant in the southern hemisphere. 
> 
> A two-kilometre-long deposit of fossilised theropod 
> dinosaur bones was discovered on the Chatham Islands last 
> week, while in February, a giant "human-sized" 40-million-
> year-old fossilised penguin was discovered in Kawhia, in 
> the Waikato. 
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1611576.htm
>  
> Penguins survived when dinosaurs died. 07/04/2006. ABC 
> News Online 
> 
> By Marilyn Head for ABC Science Online
> 
> New analysis of the world's oldest fossil penguins 
> confirms some birds survived the mass extinction that 
> killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, researchers say.
> 
> The penguins once lived in shallow seas off New Zealand's 
> east coast 60 million years ago.
> 
> Now a molecular study, published in the journal Molecular 
> Biology and Evolution, links them closely to modern 
> penguins.
> 
> Co-author Associate Professor Ewan Fordyce from the 
> University of Otago says penguins are specialised birds 
> that evolved much later than other species.
> 
> "The fact that they have been found within a few million 
> years of the dinosaurs' extinction is compelling evidence 
> that modern birds must have evolved earlier and 
> diversified during the time of the dinosaurs," he said.
> 
> "It also suggests that many of those bird lineages 
> survived the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs, so 
> it's unlikely that there was a big turnover, with modern 
> birds only emerging after the mass extinction."
> 
> The study incorporates genetic evidence of the 
> evolutionary relationships between penguins' distant 
> cousins like shearwaters, albatrosses, ducks and moas.
> 
> The researchers used DNA from these birds to provide a 
> broad framework of family relationships which, together 
> with the fossil evidence, is used to predict when those 
> birds must have arisen.
> 
> "We're really confident we have ancient birds and really 
> confident about the date," says Professor Fordyce.
> 
> "It's enabled us to establish an earlier timeframe for 
> when groups of modern birds branched out."
> 
> Most of the New Zealand fossils, officially recognised as 
> the Waimanu penguin genus, were discovered by amateur 
> palaeontologist Al Mannering in the Waipara region just 
> north of Christchurch.
> 
> Some 60 million years ago New Zealand had already 
> separated from Australia and Antarctica and was a low-
> lying land mass much closer to the South Pole.
> 
> Waimanu manneringi would have developed in a polar habitat 
> similar to today's yellow-eyed penguin, which it closely 
> resembles.
> 
> Its long bill and condensed wing bones indicate that it 
> would be quite at home eating and swimming in today's 
> Antarctica, the researchers say. 
> 
> 
> 
> © 2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
> 
> 
> 
>