First Complete Lizard Genome Sequenced

iamrmani writes with an article in the International Business Times about the recent gene sequencing of a lizard. From the article: "Researchers have managed to sequence the genes of the green anole lizard, which is the first non-bird species of reptile to have its genome sequenced and assembled. The findings, which researchers have obtained after assembling and analyzing more than 20 mammalian genomes, may go a long way in understanding the evolution of animals and humans."

Interesting

[Mensa Babe]

The first non-bird species of reptile? I've heard that it is also the first non-mammal species of reptile to have its genome sequenced. Seriously though, the Slashdot summary may sound stupid (shocking, I know) but the story is actually quite interesting. Of course this is not something to read about in the International Business Times! There is a much better article in Scientific American: Lizard Genome Unveiled: First non-avian reptile sequence helps explain vertebrate evolution [scientificamerican.com] by Lee Sweetlove. Highly recommended reading. I also recommend this article on PhysOrg: First lizard genome sequenced [physorg.com] by Haley Bridger. Ths story is particularly remarkable that when we have successfully sequenced the genomes of the entire line of the fish - reptile - bird - mammal evolution then we will finally be able to prove the theory even beyond any reasonable doubt of intelligent designers. Hopefully this breakthrough will start an interesting discussion in the world of science about the exact details of the natural selection in general and the speciation in particular.

Re:birds aren't lizards

[Randle_Revar]

Dinos are reptiles, birds are dinos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetics [wikipedia.org]
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/phylogenetics_04 [berkeley.edu]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Phylogenetic-Groups.svg [wikimedia.org]

However, mammals are not reptiles (but reptiles and mammals are both amniotes)

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Modern biology is moving away from the designation "reptiles" because it is paraphyletic, that is, it does not include all of th descendants of one common ancestor. Reptiles excludes birds and mammals. This makes it useless to modern science, which focuses more on the way things are related than the superficial similarities between them as classical linnean taxonomy does. This is known as cladistics. Learn about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics