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Evolution illustration. Through the new method, scientists have a detailed understanding of when mammals appeared and evolved to this day.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Speed thing evolution, its timeline and species types have long been noted by scientists. The problem is, there’s always a new discovery that fills in the gaps in the timeline that keeps it tangled up again, and scientists have to sort it out.
Therefore, the paper published December 22 in the journal Nature, offers the most detailed timeline of the evolution of the most ancient mammals to date. The researchers created the ‘time tree’ with an explanation of the approach of a new computational method, and was quick to get the exact evolutionary tree by date.
This is a relatively new method for analyzing mammalian genome data sets and helps scientists answer longstanding questions such as when did modern placental mammals originate, whether it was during the mass extinction of the dinosaurs or not.
“By integrating the full genome in the analysis and the necessary fossil information, we can reduce uncertainty and get a precise evolutionary timeline,” said Sandra Alvarez-Carretero, lead author of the paper from the School of Biological and Behavioral Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. became University College London.
“Did modern mammalian groups coexist with dinosaurs, or did they originate after a mass extinction? We now have a definite answer,” he said in release.
The researchers’ development uses new Bayesian statistics, which are fast-paced for analyzing a large number of genome sequences. It also takes into account the uncertainty in the data.
“We broke the computational hurdle by dividing the analysis into sub-levels: first simulating a timeline using 72 genomes and then using the results to create simulations in the remaining species,” said Mario dos Reis, research associate and doctorate in the School of Biological and Behavioral Sciences, Queen Mary University of London.
“Using the genome can reduce uncertainty because it allows the rejection of unreasonable time sequences from simulations,” he continued.
They confirm the ancestor of the modern group of placental mammals, emerging after the great extinction that occurred 66 million years ago. Placental mammals are the scientific group to define the most diverse living mammals, such as primates, rodents, cecateca (such as dolphins and orcas), chiropterans (bats), and humans.
“The evolutionary timeline of mammals is perhaps one of the most controversial topics in evolutionary biology. Early studies provide an estimated origination for modern placental groups deep in the Cretaceous, in the era of the dinosaurs,” said Phil Donoghue, professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. research fellow.
Graphodatsky et al
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The evolutionary tree created by the researchers through a new research approach. Seen, the plot of how simple mammals in ancient times, over time became complex as it is today.
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“The past two decades have seen studies move back and forth between post- and pre-K-Pg (Cretaceous-Palaeogene) diversification scenarios. Our precise timeline resolves this issue.”
The data they have is obtained from the genome data of mammalian species taken as much as possible. The abundance of genetic data creates complexities such as inaccuracies and requires researchers to develop precise strategies for identifying which samples are bad, or should be eliminated.
It was this new approach that summed up the computational time in their complex analysis, which should have taken decades but could have run for months. You can see the results of his research from the image above as a summary of the evolutionary tree.
Also Read: Were There People on Earth Who Didn’t Migrate After Evolving?
“If we try to analyze this large mammal data set on a supercomputer without using the Bayesian methods we have developed, we will have to wait several decades to deduce the mammalian evolutionary time tree,” explains Alvarez-Carretero. “Imagine how long this analysis could take if we were using our own computers.”
“In addition, we managed to reduce the computational time by a factor of 100. This new approach not only enables the analysis of genomic data sets, but also, by being more efficient, substantially reduces the CO2 emissions released due to computations,” he continued.
The researchers write that the method developed in the study offers another use for understanding other evolutionary timelines. Of course, it is very helpful in analysis that uses large data sets. Thus, it will be very easy to understand the evolutionary time scale that can be relied upon in the study of evolution.
Also Read: Apollo Sample Analysis Reveals New Information About the Evolution of the Moon
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