Re: Has common ancestry been established by genetic mapping?

The use of the term _genetic mapping_ is nonstandard, but if you mean have 
features of DNA, including nonfunctional pieces, been used to infer common 
ancestry of organisms, then the answer is yes.  Indeed, there is an entire 
branch of biology called molecular phylogenetics that does little else.  
There are several journals devoted to such work, e.g., Molecular 
Phylogenetics and Evolution, Molecular Biology and Evolution.  Numerous 
other journals include many articles on the topic, Systematic Biology, 
Molecular Ecology, Journal of Molecular Evolution, Evolution, and Journal 
of Evolution.  These journals are available in any university library and 
have websites that can be found by using their titles as search terms.

None of these really constitute what youve termed as "follow-up" studies.  
Im unsure of your use of that term since the authors of the article to 
which you refer had selected only a few instances of the "technique" from 
literally many hundreds of available studies to make their point.  They 
werent exhaustively mentioning all the evidence.  To check out some 
seminal papers on molecular evolution check those referenced in a good 
introductory textbook on that topic most easily found by using that phrase 
as a search term on amazon.com; i think the new edition by Li is the best.

Not only have they used these techniques to examine common ancestry of 
select groups of species, but have used it to construct an entire tree of 
all major branches of life.  This tree is online; use "Tree of Life" as 
search term or go to Univ Arizona page, then Dept Evol webpage, then under 
Faculty either David or Wayne Maddison's page (i forget, theyre twins) and 
he should have a link since he maintains it.  A great man Carl Woese was 
the first to do this and his name should provide some useful hits; also 
try the name of his protege Norman Pace, i think hes at Berkeley now.

Dont know if ive covered everything here; feel free to e-mail me whenever 
you like.  I enjoyed your website.

Sincerely,

alx

alexander.kerr@yale.edu