Moreover, since pseudogenes are genomic fossils and can be regarded as a virtual resource of ancient transcripts (Huang et al., 2008; Shemesh et al., 2006), the pseudogene-related CNVs are useful for studies in alternatively spliced variants and transcriptome divergence across species.
Lentiviruses have been infecting vertebrate genomes for far longer than anyone had previously shown, and the "genomic fossil" that led to this new discovery comes from the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), a species that until now no one had connected to these pathogens.
It is not so easy in fields where the data are by their nature fragmentary or hard to interpret (phylogenetic data come to mind, whether fossil or genomic); and it is also less easy where new ground is being broken (see the comment on the discovery of cyclins in [ 1]).
Further development of nuclear genomic datasets and further incorporation of the fossil record are required to address central questions on rates of genomic versus morphological evolution, gene and species trees, molecular and fossil ages, molecular and morphological differences, and the recognition and timing of ecological radiations and dispersal events in Ruminantia.
Transposition in somatic cells leaves no trace in the genomic fossil record and does not help the vertical spread of the transposon through the population.
Transposition in the germ line aids the vertical spread of the transposon in the population and leaves a genomic fossil record of some of the events, which we still observe today.
"And fossil fuels, they are running out.
Related site Bird systematics and fossil record.
Extinctions are seen both in studies of fossil pollen, and fossil leaves.
If fossil biomarkers are to be trusted, then it should be so also for fossil steranes diagnostic for eukaryotes and fossil polyisoprenoids diagnostic for archaea.
