Showing posts with label male. Show all posts
Showing posts with label male. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

The Importance of the Polar Bear's Y Chromosome

The well-known polar bear is one species that is particularly difficult to study it's evolution. This is due to the environment they live in and how it is hard to find their remains. Because of this, scientists have been studying their genes to fully understand their development. The Y chromosome has been studied extensively because of its ability to provide insights of genetic history. Using the Y chromosome gives access to unique information because it is only passed on to males. Their research concluded that there are two different male polar bear lineages across the world. This suggests that polar bears have roamed for many years and distributed their genetic information along the way. I found this article interesting because of how scientists found information on a species, despite the level of difficulty. Also, from this finding, the area of further investigation of polar bear development is endless.
The polar bear's genetic information is being used to study the development of the species.