Recently scientists have found that an Australian kangaroo named Matilda has a lot in common with humans than they thought. Matilda, a Tammar wallaby is small and has a lot of the same genomes as humans. This shows that the kangaroo shared a common ancestor with humans about 150 million years ago. The scientists also found fourteen other unknown genes that they believe also belong to humans. "Great chunks of genomes are virtually identical", said Jenny Graves, director of the government-backed research effort. The scientists started working on Matildas sequenced her genes last year and last week they finished putting all the pieces of the sequence together. The group of scientists plan on publishing their research on Matilda next year. Many other scientists are have also unraveled 24 other mammal's DNA. These studies are important so they can learn more about DNA and genomes and they can learn new things about the animals they are testing. Overall, this study on Matilda was very useful and we learned more about kangaroos due to it.
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