Research published today in Nature has found that many of the viruses infecting us today have ancient evolutionary histories that date back to the first vertebrates and perhaps the first animals in existence.
[...] The researchers discovered 214 novel RNA viruses (where the genomic material is RNA rather than DNA) in apparently healthy reptiles, amphibians, lungfish, ray-finned fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish.
"This study reveals some groups of virus have been in existence for the entire evolutionary history of the vertebrates -- it transforms our understanding of virus evolution," said Professor Eddie Holmes, of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases & Biosecurity at the University of Sydney.
"For the first time we can definitely show that RNA viruses are many millions of years old, and have been in existence since the first vertebrates existed.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 06 2018, @06:20AM
What seems to me to have been shown is that certain RNA viruses have evolved to attack a wide range of species....apparently all vertebrates. This could have happened because it evolved from attacking their common ancestor, but it could also have evolved in one species and spread.
Since these are RNA viruses we can be pretty sure it has a very high mutation rate. This would probably make the "molecular clock" useless over a few dozen millennia. Only strongly selected portions of the genome would be preserved, and those are selected for functional reasons, so even independent evolution isn't out of the question, though rather unlikely unless it's a pretty small chunk.
OTOH, I don't have a subscription to Nature, so I'm working from the summary and general principles.
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