University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

[![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSn-kvn-HAEF2_PxE_A6uYshs-3Gi9nnfaVPPlyOcq7j92nSkdxlFomsgjyR_x0mJaVG8RnPfJ2NV7FKqrfrRzJcZ4izGr6sjX65KsIP2jFQyHIYrqmiSaELOGfgzX-OJet1eu/s200/carmen.png){#BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273069905498395362
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border="0"}](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSn-kvn-HAEF2_PxE_A6uYshs-3Gi9nnfaVPPlyOcq7j92nSkdxlFomsgjyR_x0mJaVG8RnPfJ2NV7FKqrfrRzJcZ4izGr6sjX65KsIP2jFQyHIYrqmiSaELOGfgzX-OJet1eu/s1600-h/carmen.png){onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"}  
One byproduct of playing with the [Challenge
Demo](http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2008/11/challenge-demo-online.html) is
that I come across some rather surprising results. For example, the
rather staidly titled [\"Cryptic speciation and paraphyly in the
cosmopolitan bryozoan Electra pilosa---Impact of the Tethys closing on
species
evolution\"](http://iphylo.org/~rpage/challenge/www/uri/4b9a343ab3072ee605c0ac3e4adb36a2)
([doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.016](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.016))
starts to look a whole lot more interesting given the taxon treemap
(right).  
  
The girl is [Carmen
Electra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Electra), which is
understandable given the Yahoo image search was for \"Electra\" (a genus
of bryozoan). However, what are the wild men (and women) doing at the
top? Turns out this is the result of searching for the genus *Homo*. But
why, you ask, does a paper on bryozoans have human sequences? Well,
looks like the table in the paper has incorrect GenBank accession
numbers. The sequences AJ711044-50 should, I\'m guessing, be
AJ**97**1044-50.  
  
Ironically, although it was Carmen Electra\'s photo that initially made
me wonder what was going on, it\'s really the hairy folks above her
image that signal something is wrong. I\'ve come across at least one
other example of a paper citing an incorrect sequences, so it might be
time to automate this checking. Or, what is probably going to be more
fun, looking at treemaps for obviously wrong images and trying to figure
out why.


One byproduct of playing with the Challenge Demo is that I come across some rather surprising results.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Sequencing Carmen Electra