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Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said yesterday.

    Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Center of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said.

    "There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order," center director Jenny Graves told reporters in Melbourne.

    "We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not. There is great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome," Graves said, according to AAP.

    Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another only 70 million years ago.

    Kangaroos first evolved in China, but migrated across the Americas to Australia and Antarctica, they said.

    "Kangaroos are hugely informative about what we were like 150 million years ago," Graves said.

Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said yesterday.

    Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Center of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said.

    "There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order," center director Jenny Graves told reporters in Melbourne.

    "We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not. There is great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome," Graves said, according to AAP.

    Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another only 70 million years ago.

    Kangaroos first evolved in China, but migrated across the Americas to Australia and Antarctica, they said.

    "Kangaroos are hugely informative about what we were like 150 million years ago," Graves said.

The astronauts then began their main task -- inspecting, cleaning and lubricating the station's starboard solar array rotary joint (SARJ) -- or the right-side joint. The mechanism is a wagon-wheel-shaped joint on the station's truss that allows electricity-generating solar panels to rotate so that they can always collect as much sunlight as possible.

    NASA ground controllers noticed last year that more power than normal was being required to rotate the starboard joint, and that the device was vibrating excessively.

    During several space walks to inspect the joint, engineers narrowed the cause to insufficient lubrication.

    The two astronauts began work on the problem by removing the joint's old bearings. They still have to clean metal shavings off the joint's surface, lubricate the device and install new bearings.   

The astronauts then began their main task -- inspecting, cleaning and lubricating the station's starboard solar array rotary joint (SARJ) -- or the right-side joint. The mechanism is a wagon-wheel-shaped joint on the station's truss that allows electricity-generating solar panels to rotate so that they can always collect as much sunlight as possible.

    NASA ground controllers noticed last year that more power than normal was being required to rotate the starboard joint, and that the device was vibrating excessively.

    During several space walks to inspect the joint, engineers narrowed the cause to insufficient lubrication.

    The two astronauts began work on the problem by removing the joint's old bearings. They still have to clean metal shavings off the joint's surface, lubricate the device and install new bearings.