Author: Alice Dreger / Source: Big Think
- A team at UMass Amherst recently sequenced the genome of the Canadian lynx.
- It’s part of a project intending to sequence the genome of every vertebrate in the world.
- Conservationists interested in the Canadian lynx have a new tool to work with.
If you want to know what makes a Canadian lynx a Canadian lynx, I can now—as of this month—point you directly to the DNA of a Canadian lynx, and say, “That’s what makes a lynx a lynx.
” The genome was sequenced by a team at UMass Amherst, and it’s one of 15 animals whose genomes have been sequenced by the Vertebrate Genomes Project, whose stated goal is to sequence the genome of all 66,000 vertebrate species in the world.Sequencing the genome of a particular species of an animal is important in terms of preserving genetic diversity. Future generations don’t necessarily have to worry about our memory of the Canadian Lynx warping the way hearsay warped perception a long time ago.
13th-century fantastical depiction of an elephant.
It is easy to…
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