I am writing in regards to an article I read in the October 1997 issue of Discover magazine entitled, *Island Africa.* It was about how an evolutionary biologist studied five particular genes in dozens of different mammals. He compared nucleotide sequences of a number of critters and found that elephants, manatees, golden moles, elephant shrews and hyraxes and found that they have more in common than once thought.
My question is, how can just *five particular genes* give enough information to say that these animals shared a common ancestor? It would also seem that given the amount of information found in genes that, if you looked hard and long enough, you could find some similarities between all mammals. Indeed there has to be similarities.
I merely wish to understand, I am not disputing this information. Thank you for your time, if it is not too much trouble I would like to draw from your knowledge and expertise if this is an appropriate place to do so.
Kevin Koenig