The modern African elephant – as well as the manatee and the rock hyrax, both distant cousins of the elephant – have between seven and 11 additional copies of the LIF 'zombie gene'. — Reuters
Maybe it’s the elephant’s genes that never forget. In addition to having great memories, elephants are known for having a very low incidence of cancer.
In what might seem a wild mash-up of the SyFy channel and National Geographic, new research has uncovered a surprising factor that protects elephants against the dread disease: a gene that had gone dormant in their mammalian ancestors, but got turned back on as their evolving bodies grew ever bigger.
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