The phrase
"animal lineages" refers to different groups or branches of animals that have descended from a common ancestor. It represents the evolutionary relationships between different species and how they have diversified over time.
Full definition
The last thing any
purebred animal lineage needs is total lack of genetic diversity to draw upon to create future generations.
Triassic 210 million years ago; killed off more than a fifth
of animal lineages, both on land and in the ocean.
Evidence for comb jellies as the earliest
branching animal lineage first emerged in 2008, a decade ago, in the first, large - scale, phylogenomic analysis of the animal phyla.
Horse breeding records are some of the most impressive efforts to
chronicle animal lineages in human history, with some stretching back thousands of years.
The over-representation detected in our study supports the neural crest as key to animal domestication and to the rise of common domestic traits in
independent animal lineages,» concludes Professor Ludovic Orlando.
The sponge was indeed at the base
of animal lineage, and just above it were the cnidarians, such as jellyfish, anemones, and corals.
That was surprising, because DNA mutates from generation to generation — and
these animal lineages have been evolving independently for up to 200 million years.
«Although we saw some of the hallmark characteristics of bilateral growth and development, we don't believe Dickinsonia was a precursor to today's bilaterians, rather that these are two distinct groups that shared a common set of ancestral genes that are present throughout
the animal lineage,» Evans said.
But as long as the molecular clock ticks at a constant rate in different
animal lineages this information can still be of use.
Because it is such a versatile player in the immune system, the gene appears to have been preserved in
all animal lineages, from horseshoe crabs to humans.