• AlchemicalAgent
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    2 years ago

    I’m not sure about this particular paper, but usually you can compare the number of mutations in a common protein and use that to estimate how long ago a common ancestor existed. As an example here is a graph of the number of mutations in mitochondrial DNA for the protein Cytochrome C. The more mutations you accumulate in a genome the larger amount of time since they split from a common ancestor.

    Neutral Mutations in Cytochrome C