MicroRNAs Still Do Not Support an Evolutionary "Tree of Life"

As we reported here and here in 2012, biologist Kevin Peterson at Dartmouth (pictured at right) sent shock waves through the Darwin community when he studied microRNAs and found they did not track expected evolutionary relationships as expected. Thinking that microRNAs should be clear windows on evolution because they are generally well conserved, he kept "uncovering problems, from the base of the animal tree all the way up to its crown."

Now Nature News has an update on the story. The headlin...