People can share ancestors with kangaroos

Australia's iconic animal has a lot of genetic similarities. According to scientists, kangaroos and we used to share a common ancestor at least 150 million years ago.

This is the first time Australian biologists and geneticists have carried out a gene mapping of kangaroo in a government-funded project.

'We were surprised to find similarities in the number and gene structure between humans and kangaroos. "Two species have a lot of identical genes ," said Jenny Graves, project manager. He and his colleagues discovered 14 more unknown genes of kangaroos and thought that those genes also exist in humans.

Scientists have mapped the DNA of several dozen animals, including mice and chimpanzees - those closely related to humans in evolutionary pathways. Jenny suggests that the link between kangaroo and humans makes their genetic map useful in understanding human evolution.

Through the genetic arrangement of different animals, scientists can detect genes that they have never known and changes in genetic traits. Unchanged structures often have a very important role.

The team thinks that humans and kangaroos once shared a common ancestor at least 150 million years ago, while hamsters and new humans split into two species from about 70 million years ago. Initially, kangaroos appeared in China, but gradually migrated to the Americas to Australia and Antarctica.

"Kangaroo is a huge source of data for studies of human life 150 million years ago," Jenny said.