Molecular Clock Needs To Take Supernovae Into Account, Claims Researcher

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Tick tock. Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock

Not all clocks measure time in hours, minutes and seconds. The molecular clock is one such timepiece; it uses the random mutations in sequences of DNA to estimate when species diverged from one another. Although it is an invaluable tool for biologists and paleontologists alike for tracking evolutionary changes over time, it doesn’t always precisely match up with the dates given by the corresponding fossils.