mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
New technique pinpoints milestones in the evolution of bacteria
Scientists have devised a reliable way to determine when certain groups of bacteria appeared in the evolutionary record. The technique could be used to identify when significant changes occurred in the evolution of bacteria, and to reveal details about the primitive environments that drove such changes in the first place.
more…
> 450 to 350 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era, several major groups of soil bacteria acquired a specific gene from fungi that allowed them to break down chitin — a fibrous material found in the cell walls of fungi and in the exoskeletons of arthropods.
Bacteria stealing a gene from fungi. Now that’s just not fair.
Very interesting, opening up an entirely different approach to the study of evolution, acquiring additional knowledge from different groups of organisms, especially regarding hitherto unknown soft tissue relationships. This technique would be as good as the discovery of DNA regarding the evolution of soft body organisms.