Protein sequencing solves Darwinian mystery of strange South American mammals

Scientists have resolved pieces of a nearly 200-year-old evolutionary puzzle surrounding the group of mammals that Charles Darwin called the “strangest animals ever discovered.” New research shows that South America's native ungulates, or hooved mammals -- the last of which disappeared only 10,000 years ago -- are actually related to mammals like horses rather than elephants and other species with ancient evolutionary ties to Africa as some taxonomists have maintained. ...read more