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Originally Posted by AKA_Monet
What my husband said what he finds interesting about these animals is that they are the "transition" from reptiles to birds to mammals--because the platypi share genetic code for all 3 types of kingdoms. The platypus has venom in its legs like poisonous snakes and other reptiles. The females lay eggs, both genders have bills like ducks and they have fur and a undefined mammary glands.
The genetic map is the full DNA map of these animals with several duplications of a number of genes. I did not read how many chromosomes it had and it sounds like there is a ploidy issue--like one too many sex chromosomes...
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That makes so much sense what your husband said about them. It's true that very disimilar animals have turned out to have very similar genes. The platypus looks so bizarre but unique, and just think the DNA sequences that are responsible for giving animals their unique appearance was out of reach until recently.
That's interesting what you were saying about their DNA map. What I've noticed in a lot of mammals is that mutations in DNA that control body shaping genes themselves, have been a significant source of evolving differences among animals. I think to get a better understanding of what distinguishes animals, including ourselves, from one another, we have to look beyond genes. The reason why is because only a small fraction of genes are devoted to the construction and pattering of animal bodies during their development from fertilized egg to adult. I think it's like less than 10%.
It's totally amazing how the hundreds of millions to billions of letters of DNA code that make up the genetic recipe for each species.
Does your husband know anything about Viper fish? I have a DVD on them, and other species of fish in the deep. Like body crushing deep. lol,
The fish that live that deep look SO weird. Some of them light up and the jelly fish that live down there are amazing to look at. I don't know much about them, with the exception of what I've watched. Have you heard of these fish?
ETA: Also when I was watching that DVD, I saw that there are some species of shark that can get that deep without being crushed, but they only go that deep for food. They can't stay down there too long though because of the water temperature.
ETA again. lol: Speaking of DNA, last night I was watching Jurassic Park for like the 10th time, and I think that would be the coolest thing to really have a park like that. I would travel there at least 3-5 times a year :-).
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