evo & palaeontology & system theory

[fancyui]

now, many people are researching molecular biology, developmental biology, etc. trying to find the law of evolution at the level of genes. what is the role of palaeontology in this field? and what about system theory?

[lucaspa]

There is no "law of evolution". Rather, what is being studied is what specific changes happened to specific genes to give the morphological traits that are visible via paleontology.

 

Just a few papers that combine paleontology with molecular biology and developmental biology are:

 

2. RO Prum and AH Brush, Which came first, the feather or the bird? Scientific American, 84-93, March 2003.

3. Sawyer RH, Salvatore BA, Potylicki TT, French JO, Glenn TC,Knapp LWJ, Origin of feathers: Feather beta (beta) keratins are expressed in discrete epidermal cell populations of embryonic scutate scales. Exp Zool 2003Feb 15;295B(1):12-24

6. http://ajp.amjpathol.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/3/1099?ct

8. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/312/5770/97 JT. Bridgham, SM Carroll, J W Thornton Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation Science 7 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5770, pp. 97 - 101

9. "Tracing a Backbone's Evolution Through a Tunicate's Lost Tail" Science vol. 274, pp 1082-1083, Nov. 15, 1996' Primary article is "Requirement of the Manx Gene for Expression of Chordate Freatures in a Tailless Ascidian Larvae" pp 1205-1208.

4. GJ Vermeij, Animal origins, Science 274: 525-526, 1996 (Oct. 25). The peer-reviewed article is GA Wray, JS Levington, and LH Shapiro, Molecular evidence for deep precambrian divergences among metazoan phyla. Science 274: 578-573, 1996 25 Oct.

8. AH Knoll, A new molecular window on early life. Science 285: 1026-1025, 13 Aug. 1999. Pushes origin of eukaryotes back a billion years to 2700 Ma. Original article is JJ Brocks et al. Archaen molecular fossils and the early rise of eukaryotes. Science 285: 1033-1036, 13 Aug 1999.

 

Also look at the April 13, 2007 Science. Two articles there looking at the amino acid sequences of type I collagen from 2 fossils: a 60,000 year mammoth and a 65 Mya T. rex.