Kangaroos Are CLOSELY 'Related' To Humans !!!

by **J The Kidd** Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:57 pm

Humans and kangaroos are close cousins on the evolutionary tree
sharing a common ancestor 150 million years ago, according to
Australian researchers.

Scientists have mapped the genetic code of the Australian
marsupials for the first time and found large chunks of DNA are the
same.

'There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of
that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same
order,' said Jenny Graves, director of the Centre of Excellence for
Kangaroo Genomics.

'We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not. There is
great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the
kangaroo genome,' she added.

Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor 150million years ago, the
researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another 70
million years ago.

They believe kangaroos first evolved in China, but migrated across the Americas to Australia and Antarctica.

'Kangaroos are hugely informative about what we were like 150 million years ago,' Graves said.