Distant species produce love child after 60 million year breakup
Friday, February 13, 2015 - 15:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A delicate woodland fern discovered in the mountains of France is the love child of two distantly-related groups of plants that haven't interbred in 60 million years, genetic analyses show. Reproducing after such a long evolutionary breakup is akin to an elephant hybridizing with a manatee, or a human with a lemur, the researchers say.