Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 7 March 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070305-6
News
Did a 'light' genome help birds take flight?
A smaller genome evolved in dinosaurs, long before birds learned to fly.
A study of dinosaur genomes hints that the early evolution of a smaller genome might have been necessary for later vertebrates to take to the skies.
Birds have long been known to have much smaller genomes than mammals and reptiles living on the ground.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email redesign@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.