Chris Hyland
Posts: 705
Joined: Jan. 2006
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In animals quite often we see a diversification of species following genome duplication events, for example a whole genome duplication coincides with the origin of vertebrates. It appears that it also reduces the change of a species becoming extinct, and duplication events are often preceeded by multiple extinct lineages. This is probably because a duplication of the genome equals quadruple the number of genetic interactions, so a lot of oppurtunity to generate biological novelty, which is useful if you're facing extinction.
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