Une analyse moléculaire confirme le lien entre le Tyrannosaure et les oiseaux

Molecular analysis, or genetic sequencing, of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein from the dinosaur’s femur confirms that T. rex shares a common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators. The dinosaur protein was wrested from a fossil T. rex femur discovered in 2003.
These new research results, published in April 2008 theweek in the journal Science, represent the first use of molecular data to place a non-avian dinosaur in a phylogenetic tree. Theymatch predictions made from skeletal anatomy, providing the first molecular evidence for the evolutionary relationships of a non-avian dinosaur.