Associate Professor Kevin Peterson and graduate student Alysha Heimberg have helped determine where the turtle should fall on the “tree of life” with their genetic research. (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)
Two Dartmouth scientists are co-authors on a new study that could solve an old puzzle about turtles: where to place them on the “tree of life.”
NatureNews reported that turtles should sit on the same branch as lizards, according to a genetic analysis that Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Kevin J. Peterson and graduate student Alysha Heimberg participated in with colleagues from Yale University and Maine’s Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. The study has been published online in the journal Biology Letters.
Read the full story from NatureNews, which was published on 07/19/11.