reconstucting our first mammal ancestor (Article)

[Paw]

I don't know why, but every time they want to know what the first mammal looked like, they say it looked like a shrew. Why don't they do genemapping for shrews?

[painted wolf]

like a shrew in that it was a small incetivore of about shrew size. There are differences, but when summing up for a lay-person it helps to point out the similarity to something they already know.

I too would like to see the shrew done, I wonder how it would compair to the mouse they decoded. Oh, well all things in time.

wa:do

[HelpMe]

sounds fun

[painted wolf]

What I'd really love to see though, now that I think of it is the Platypus... our egg laying mammal firend. I wonder how his DNA would stand up next to our own and that of both birds and reptiles. Just how much closer would he be to us vs. them?
Will we end up having to make a new phyla for the Monotremes?

wa:do