Birds To Dinosaur: Merely 58% Genetic Similarity between T. Rex and Chicken?

Merely 58% Genetic Similarity between T. Rex and Chicken?

"The new study found that 99.4 percent of the most critical DNA sites are identical in the corresponding human and chimp genes." (Source)

"Human and fish genes are 90% identical!" (Source)

"75% of mouse genes have equivalents in humans (Source), 90% of the mouse genome could be lined up with a region on the human genome. (Source)

"We have obtained estimates of genetic differentiation between humans and the great apes no greater than, say, those observed between morphologically indistinguishable (sibling) species of Drosophila flies (fruit flies)."
-- Elizabeth J. Bruce and Francisco J. Ayala (Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Calif.), "Humans and Apes Are Genetically Very Similar,," Nature, Nov. 16, 1978, Vol 276, p. 265.

And the "outstanding percentage of similarity" with T. Rex to chicken was merely...58% ?
Data used to determine that genetically... the genetically closest known relative on earth, is a chicken at a meager 58% similarity... that hardly constitutes an "ancestor" of birds.

Humans and fish share a 90% genetic similarity, and that's following 400 million of years of divergence between humans from fish.

From protein to DNA
So a dinosaur has a collagen protein that is very similar to a chicken's. What does this actually mean? Which proteins are made when and where is decided by our genes. Genes really are just recipes for proteins. The recipe is just instructions for putting together a string of amino acids in a certain order. What the researchers got out of their experiments were strings of amino acids. For example, they got the following from the T. rex:
GVQGPPGPQGPR
Each letter is a different amino acid. For example, G is glycine and P is proline.
They then looked at other creatures to see what string of amino acids they have. The chicken, for example, has: GVQGPPGPQGPR
As you can see, this is an exact match. The newt on the other hand, had:
GAAGPPGATGFP
This is pretty different for this piece of the protein. When they did this with many pieces of the protein, they came up with a number of 58% sequence identity (the same amino acids in the same order) for the chicken. And 51% for the frog and newt.
(Source)

T. Rex is 58% genetically similar to a chicken?
Chickens are about 60-75% genetically similar to humans.
Therefore, chickens share a closer relation to humans, than t. rex.

"About 60 percent of chicken genes correspond to a similar human gene. However, researchers uncovered more small sequence differences between corresponding pairs of chicken and human genes, which are 75 percent identical on average, than between rodent and human gene pairs, which are 88 percent identical on average. Differences between human and chicken genes were not uniform across the board, however. Chicken genes involved in the cell's basic structure and function showed more sequence similarity with human genes than did those implicated in reproduction, immune response and adaptation to the environment."
(Source)

If "58%" genetic similarity to T. Rex is all they got for deciding where chickens "evolved from" -- then the human genome is even greater similarity with chickens at a whopping 60%-75% similarity... we could say chickens evolved from humans!!! Yay!!! That's how the dino-bird folks do it.

DNA has a 521 Year Life Span
(Source)

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Interesting Related Links

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"...Similar design features exist in modern birds, which evolved them independently, say the scientists."
Swimming led to flying physicists say
"...Fruit flies 'swim' through air, using the same physics as fish, study shows
Fruit flies and other flyers also use drag to "swim" through the air, the scientists say. Their discovery lends support to the evolutionary theory that flight in insects emerged from swimming.

Flying snakes... flying squirrels... flying reptiles and flying birds?

Early bird makes a splash
"...although many people think of ducks, geese and other waterfowl as specialized animals, they are quite primitive in comparison to highly evolved species such as songbirds... almost every bird group alive today has representatives that live in or around water, Chiappe says, suggesting that a watery lifestyle may be an ancient tradition that has persisted in many lineages... Chiappe admits that the aquatic-origins theory could be cast into doubt if somebody finds a fossilized land bird of the same vintage as Gansus.
Bird-from-dinosaur theory of evolution challenged: Was it the other way around?
"...A new study provides yet more evidence that birds did not descend from ground-dwelling theropod dinosaurs, experts say, and continues to challenge decades of accepted theories about the evolution of flight."

Look at these wonderful visceral arches hinting at the aquatic ancestry for birds!

Bright Red Feathers on T. Rex?!

Ancient origins and multiple appearances of carotenoid-pigmented feathers in birds
"...The broad palette of feather colours displayed by birds serves diverse biological functions, including communication and camouflage. Fossil feathers provide evidence that some avian colours, like black and brown melanins, have existed for at least 160 million years (Myr), but no traces of bright carotenoid pigments in ancient feathers have been reported."
Leading Ornithologist, "Arguments for ancient bird feather color 'Pure Mythology'"
Synchrotron-based chemical imaging reveals plumage patterns in a 150 million year old early bird
"...Studies on the elucidation of colour in fossil feathers have suggested that the presence of melanosomes within fossil feathers may be used to tentatively reconstruct feather colours by tracking variations in melanosome shape. [...] This structural approach has some shortcomings, primarily that there is known diversity in melanin granule morphology among different species, and melanosome preservation may not be uniform. Therefore, serious questions may be raised about colour interpretation based solely on fossilised melanosome morphology and distribution. Additionally, these studies did not account for other known contributors to colour in feathers, such as the possible presence of other pigments (e.g. carotenoids) or other physical structures."
Winter cardinals don their brightest red feathers
"...Cardinals get the pigments responsible for red feathers from their food. Cardinals, tanagers and goldfinches can't synthesize carotenoids - the pigments responsible for red, orange and yellow feathers. If the birds don't eat enough carotenoid-rich fruits and insects, feathers that grow in during the next molt will be less colorful. Dogwood, rose and Japanese honeysuckle berries are locally abundant sources of carotenoid pigments."

"Frugivore Raptor" and "Vegan Rex" may have confidence in the Dinosaur-Bird myth but any person with a reasonably adequate understanding of the fossil record and how legitimate paleontology functions, can not.
Disciples of Dino-Bird Mythology may choose to believe T. Rex was a conscientious "vegetarian which dined upon an abundant supply of berries."
However, they are not alone. One other well-known group of people who make claim T. Rex was a Vegetarian: CREATIONISTS. They too claim there were no carnivorous diets (death) "before the fall".
And that's all I can say of such silly mythology vs. legitimate science!

Molecular evidence for the origin of birds (backup)
Dynamic evolution of the alpha (α) and beta (β) keratins has accompanied integument diversification and the adaptation of birds into novel lifestyles
Exploring the biofluiddynamics of swimming and flight
Researchers Compare Chicken, Human Genomes: Analysis Of First Avian Genome Uncovers Differences Between Birds And Mammals (click) and (click)
Brush Your Beak: 10 Amazing Birds With Teeth
Do birds have teeth? Ask any biologist and the answer will be “absolutely not!”, but “absolute” is a relative term and when one stretches the definitions of what makes a bird or a tooth, birds with teeth aren’t absolutely impossible anymore.

For the Anti-Creationism Darwinist Among Us

My Other Blog:
Genesis in the Ancient World
"The Jews integrated into Greek culture around 300 BC. Notably, much of the modern Biblical literature is actually Greek. Enlightened Greek thought becomes apparent in the opening of Genesis. "One of the first evolutionary theories was proposed by Thales of Miletus (640–546 BC) in the province of Ionia on the coast near Greece followed by Anaximander (550 B.C.) who speculated that life evolved from the water; lower forms of life, in a very primitive precursor to evolutionary theory."

Namely this *ouch!*

Evolution and Paleontology in the Ancient World
"...For Anaximander, the world had arisen from an undifferentiated, indeterminate substance, the apeiron. The Earth, which had coalesced out of the apeiron, had been covered in water at one stage, with plants and animals arising from mud. Humans were not present at the earliest stages; they arose from fish. This poem was quite influential on later thinkers, including Aristotle.
Had Anaximander looked at fossils? Did he study comparative fish and human anatomy? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what evidence Anaximander used to support his ideas. His theory bears some resemblance to evolutionary theory, but also seems to have been derived from various Greek myths, such as the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in which peoples or tribes are born from the Earth or from stones. His concept of the apeiron seems similar to the Tao of Chinese philosophy and religion, and to the "formless and void" Earth of the Hebrew creation account and other creation myths. However, even though Anaximander's ideas drew on the religious and mythical ideas of his time, he was still one of the first to attempt an explanation of the origin and evolution of the cosmos based on natural laws."
(Source, ucmp.berkeley.edu History)

[Sadly, what the site fails to mention is that the oldest known biblical manuscripts date no earlier than around 300 B.C., therefore, Anaximander (610-545 B.C.) could not have based any of his concepts on Biblical Hebrew. However it can be deduced, the Hebrew Genesis account was borrowed from mainstream Greek philosophy.] [The analysis by Harvard and several other University sources are quite impressive: (Scala Naturae of the Bible, Charles Darwin and Ancient Greek Philosophy)]

Genetic similarity between chicken and t. rex: 58% (click)
Genetic similarity between human and chicken: 60-75% (click)
Genetic similarity between chicken and crocodilians 61.7% (click)
NOW who's your daddy?!

In Memoriam

Sorry T. Rex. You did not evolve into chickens. You went extinct like 99% of the species on this planet who ever lived and, your similarities with birds were due to a shared Archosaurian ancestor or, merely a result of convergent evolution.
(And here is the genetic evidence.)

"Superficially bird-like dinosaurs occurred some 25 million to 80 million years after the earliest known bird, which is 150 million years old.” See (here).

..."denying the fossil record" isn't for just Creationists anymore! ...