Genetics reveals origin and evolution of blackbuck, chinkara
(World News Science)

A regular favourite with poachers and an animal that notoriously made headlines a few years ago, the blackbuck is once again in the limelight, this time, with its story of origin and evolution. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, studied four genera of `true antelopes´ - Gazella, Nanger, Eudorcas and Antilope - and found that the blackbuck´s (Antilope cervicapra) ancestors came into India from the Saharo-Arabian region about two million years ago and then evolved to its current form. `If we...