Scientists at the University of Adelaide (Australia) found a relative of the dinosaur, preserved to our time. This is stated in the published in the scientific journal Nature study.
Experts have found that the tuatara, or the tuatara is the only closest relative of dinosaurs and is found on our planet so far. Reptile appeared in the Triassic period about 250 million years ago, animal lives exclusively in New Zealand. Scientists also sequenced the genome of a relative of the dinosaurs, that is the determined amino acid sequence DNA and RNA, and found that the tuatara has a connection with reptiles, and mammals.
It turned out that the genome contains about 4 percent of the so-called “wandering” genes, about 10 percent of the genes related to the platypus and echidnas, and less than one percent to a mammal, such as man. “It was a very unusual observation, which showed that the genome of the tuatara consists of a combination of mammals and reptiles,” — said Professor University of Adelaide David Adelson (David Adelson).
“Tuataras are the last surviving species of reptiles ever to have walked the planet with dinosaurs,” notes the uniqueness of the opening of Adelson. According to scientists, reptiles very early — about 250 million years ago — separated from species of lizards and snakes. The only primates arose about 65 million years ago, and hominids, from whom came the people, appeared about six million years ago.
