DNA tells big story of T.rex's link to chickens

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — It may seem unfathomable, but DNA testing has shown the towering Tyrannasaurus rex's closest living animal relatives include the humble chicken, a new study has found.

The research published this week in the journal Science marked "the first use of molecular data to place a non-avian dinosaur in a phylogenetic tree that traces the evolution of species," the journal said.

"These results match predictions made from skeletal anatomy, providing the first molecular evidence for the evolutionary relationships of a non-avian dinosaur," co-author Chris Organ, a postdoctoral researcher in organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University said.

"Though we only had six peptides -- just 89 amino acids -- from T. rex, we were able to establish...