Re: Bird-monotreme link?

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Allegedly, the Yeti wrote-  
  
:-D  
  
> >Has anyone else heard of the study coming out that reports the results  
> >of cytochrome-B analysis between monotremes, crocodylians, aves, and   
> >marsupials?  Apparently there is a strong molecular basis for linking  
> >aves and monotremes.  Just curious if anyone else has any information  
> >on this?  
 
Haven't read about that, but I know people who hate cytochrome b, and on 
the whole this looks a lot like long-branch attraction. Did they take 
*Alligator mississipiensis* as the croc? This beast is capable of making 
"vertebrates" ( = itself) the basalmost deuterostome(s) in a molecular 
analysis. Let me guess what the cladogram looks like... 
 
+--crocs 
`--+--marsupials 
   `--+--birds 
      `--monotremes 
 
Right? 
If so, we have long-branch attraction between crocs and the root, and 
between birds (long branch) and monotremes (basalmost mammals, long 
branch). 
 
> I've not heard anything, but this reminds me of when there was a paper   
> published that argued that mammals and birds were the sistergroup to   
> each other because they were endothermic.  
  
Some old paper really found this, not because of endothermy, but because  
of long-branch attraction of (AFAIK incomplete) 18S rDNA sequences. Today  
this gene produces more normal results.  

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