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Professional Scientists of Lemmy: What is your field of study's, most complex unanswered question? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe we're not talking about the same thing? I was thinking about the diapsid debate, where genetic evidence is overwhelmingly strong in favour for diapsid evolution Mitochondrial DNA evidence: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC24355/ Micro RNA evidence: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21775315/

Tbh a core multi gene ML tree to all other reptiles would prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, maybe someone's done that already but I haven't been able to find it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

The diapsid part is very likely indeed, as fossil skulls of early stem turtles do show some temporal openings ( https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110218-024746 ) The point is more where do they nest within Diapsida, more closely to the Lepidosauromorpha, or to the Archosauromorpha, and where precisely if within one of those clades. The point is that can't quite be proven using only extant species, whether by DNA or morphological evidence. And concerning ML, the methodology is often criticised, not because it's bad, but because it's opaque and thus it is difficult to justify and understand as a process