let me propose an example of "ancient extant organism" : in pnas 91, 6743-6750,
knoll suggests that the acritarch have almost not evolved for about 2000 my. but
(i) this organism is eukaryotic, and (ii) a phenotypic statis doesnt imply a
genetic stasis. i guess this last point represents the main difficulty for
proposing an "ancient extant organism".
_______________________________________________________________________________
Alain Bernot | Phone : +33-1-69-47-25-50 |
Genethon | Fax : +33-1-60-77-86-98 |
Human Genome Research Center | e-mail: bernot at genethon.fr |
1, Rue de l'Internationale BP 60 | http://www.genethon.fr |
91002 Evry, France | |
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