Paleontology has been really helped by the ease of sequencing, to the point where many evolutionary arguments are moot. Humans are apes, birds are dinosaurs. Some people still dispute it, but not with evidence on their side.

▲

Terr_ 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Some people still dispute it

I particularly like this Futurama clip on the subject. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VzGtk7Ip4NU

▲

pfdietz 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> birds are dinosaurs

Not that I doubt that, but how does DNA help, when we have no DNA samples from dinosaurs?

▲

throwaway27448 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Birds are dinosaurs because they are in the clade dinosauria. Their closest living quadrupedal relatives by genetic distance are indeed crocodiles.

But you're right, it is the fossil record that provides the strongest evidence.

▲

pfdietz 2 days ago | parent [-]

I meant, "we have no DNA evidence from non-avian dinosaurs".

Saying that birds have the same DNA as birds is not evidence of much of anything. :)

▲

greazy a day ago | parent | next [-]

Phylogenetics is amazing, given surviving members of a clade we can reconstruct the ancestors. Phylogeny techniques can use additional info, eg paleontological record.

Eg here's a nice paper discussing Bayesian phylo combined with rexord sampling. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article...

I'm in an adjacent field so take it with a grain of salt.

▲

throwaway27448 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think the genetic distance from crocodiles is still pretty strong evidence.

	▲	pfdietz 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		That just shows they diverged from crocodilians after that clade diverged from turtles. It doesn't show birds and dinosaurs are more closely related to each other than birds are to crocodilians (but the fossil evidence shows that.)

▲

mpaepper 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/scientists-discover-well-pres...

	▲	pfdietz 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		That claim is widely believed to be bullshit.

▲

2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]