Chapter 26.4: F eature I nvestigation

1. Chapter 26.4:FeatureInvestigation By Maria Waterhouse

2. Background • Scientists had been studying relationships between living species • Found they could take DNA from extinct species and compare it to living species • Alan Cooper, CécileMourer-Chauviré, Geoffrey Chambers, Arndt von Haeseler, Allan Wilson, and SvantePääbo • Compared the DNA from extinct flightless birds to birds alive today, and hypothesized a new phylogentic tree

3. Experiment • Decided to study relationships between the DNA of flightless birds • Type of discovery-based science. • Used to be many species of kiwis and moas in New Zealand • Some species of kiwis still exist, but moas are extinct. • Researchers extracted DNA from different flightless bird species • 4 extinct species of moas and3 species of kiwis (New Zealand) • Emu and cassowary (Australia and New Guinea) • Ostrich (Africa and formerly Asia) • Rheas (South America)

4. Procedure • Samples were subject to PCR of the mitochondrial SSU rRNA gene. • Compared continuous regions of the SSU rRNA gene from the species. • Lines of the data show the DNA sequences of each bird • First line, DNA from one of the four extinct moa species. Then the other species that were analyzed.

6. Results • Dot is placed when they’re identical. • Changed nucleotides are shown • Sometimes longer sequence in between, so they place a dash

7. Interpretations • These flightless birds had very similar DNA • Kiwi is more similar to African and Australian flightless birds than the moas • Proposed that New Zealand was colonized twice by ancestors of flightless birds. • Proposed new phylogentic tree

8. New Phylogentic Tree