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Wallaby, South Stradbroke Island, Australia
A wallaby on South Stradbroke Island in Australia.
Scientists have long suspected that the sex chromosome that only males carry, the Y chromosome, is deteriorating, but until now, no one has understood the evolutionary processes that control this chromosome's demise. Now, a pair of Penn State scientists, including a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow, has discovered that the Y chromosome is evolving at a rapid rate, resulting in a dramatic loss of genes that eventually could lead to the chromosome's complete disappearance. To learn more, see the Penn State news release Male Sex Chromosome Losing Genes by Rapid Evolution, Study Reveals. (Date of Image: August 2006) [See related image Here.]
Credit: Anton Nekrutenko, Penn State University
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