At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of leading financial representatives from the G-7 countries the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the U.K. host British Treasury chief George Osborne said there was a formal acknowledgement that each member needed to secure their own countries' growth by balancing austerity measures with growth-enhancing policies.The meeting also agreed on the importance of finding measures to deal with failing banks and working collectively to stop companies and individuals from dodging their tax bills.

The global recovery from recession over the past few years has been patchy. While the U.S. economy, the world's largest, appears to be gaining traction, many European countries are in recession as they try to get a grip on their public finances through deep spending cuts and tax increases.

"The will is still there to reduce the deficits but there is certainly a change of tone," said Pierre Moscovici, France's finance minister at the conclusion of the two-day summit at a country house around 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

Japan, the world's number 3 economy has been in focus over recent months as the new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a radical policy of aggressive monetary stimulus to restart the country's postwar boom, which effectively ground to a halt in the early 1990s.

One of the offshoots of the pumping more money into the Japanese economy has been a dramatic fall in the value of the yen. On Thursday, the dollar rose above 100 yen for the first time in over four years.

As well as potentially boosting economic growth by making its exports more competitive, the flipside of a lower yen is that it can also stoke inflation by increasing the price of imports. For a country that's seen prices fall for much of the past 15 years, that's important.

The rapid slide in the value of the yen has sparked fears of a "currency war" where countries use their exchange rates as an economic weapon. If other countries respond to the falling yen by debasing their currencies, Japan will be back at square one and the world economy could suffer. Sharp fluctuations in the value of currencies can hurt business confidence and investment.

So far, the argument presented by Japanese officials that it has been targeting monetary stimulus and not its exchange rate has been accepted by Japan's G-7 partners.

British finance minister George Osborne, who hosted the two days of informal discussions, said the G-7 countries all agreed to make sure that "policies are oriented towards domestic objectives."

In a rare development, the G-7 didn't actually issue a communique at the conclusion of its deliberations. However, Osborne said the previous communique "was a successful statement and one that has been held to" a clear reference to Japan.

In February, when markets were particularly roiled by developments in Japan, the G-7 said their respective fiscal and monetary policies were oriented towards meeting domestic requirements and that exchange rates were not a target of policy.

A senior U.S. Treasury official said there was a good discussion about what's going on in Japan and that Japanese officials went into some detail about how the new policy was helping to boost domestic demand.

Analysts said it's difficult for the G-7 to make any concerns over Japan public because other countries, such as the U.S. and Britain, have been accused of debasing their respective currencies over the past few years through their monetary stimulus programs.

"It's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black," said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon.

All participants at the meeting said boosting economic growth was a priority now that financial markets appear to have calmed down, especially with regard to the debt crisis that has gripped the 17-country Eurozone.

Bad banking practices around many parts of the world were behind the financial explosion in 2008, which sent the world economy skidding towards its deepest recession since World War II. Britain's Osborne said it was important to swiftly complete work to make sure that no bank is too big to fail.

"We must put regimes in place ... to deal with failing banks and to protect taxpayers and to do so in a globally consistent manner," he said.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said the bank was working out what it can do to make sure that banks lend more. Though banks have managed to reduce their debt and bolster their capital reserves and have benefited from liquidity offers from the ECB, lending remains stuck at relatively low levels particularly to smaller and medium sized enterprises.

"There wasn't any call to do more really," Draghi said, a day after Britain's Osborne indicated there would be discussions on the role of the world's central banks in shoring up global growth.

Osborne also said it was important to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, and said some of the U.K.'s offshore dependencies are working to make sure they follow the spirit of new international standards.

"Today, we all agree on the importance of collective action to tackle tax avoidance and evasion," he said. "We are absolutely determined to make progress this year .... It is vital that both developed and developing countries collect the tax that is due to them."

PARIS (AP) -- Bye, New York! Ciao, Milan! And bonjour, Paris.

The world's largest traveling circus of fashion editors, models, buyers and journalists has descended on the French capital, clutching their metro maps and city guides, to cap fashion season for nine days of intensive ready-to-wear.

And this fall-winter 2013-14 is the biggest to date, with some 99 "on-calendar" shows that see the week almost tearing at the seams, starting earlier and finishing later than ever.

"There are 12 shows a day. Twenty-two different nationalities this season. With new top designers at work," says Didier Grumbach, president of the French Fashion Federation. "It's an impressive mix, an energy that sets Paris apart from what's going on elsewhere."

Tuesday day one saw collections dominated by three up-and-coming Belgian designers: Veronique Branquinho, Cedric Charlier and Anthony Vaccarello, who dressed actress Charlotte Gainsbourg at last Friday's Cesar film awards.

The similarities start and end with their nationalities; all three threw together strong but highly individual collections.

If Branquinho was elegance, Charlier was edgy architecture, and Vaccarello was retro sex-appeal.

In other shows of the day, Le Moine Tricote spiced up the bread-and-butter knitwear with woven fabric.

Wednesday's shows include Guy Laroche, Damir Doma and London's enfant terrible, Gareth Pugh.

ANTHONY VACCARELLO

The no-holds-barred sex appeal for Anthony Vaccarello is not for the faint-hearted.

The third Belgian designer to show on Paris fashion week's first day served up a black-and-white ode to the early '80s in a show that featured micro skirts, chainmail, a lot of skin and lashings of sensual leather.

Strong retro shoulders, asymmetrical, diagonally cut skirts, upturned lapels and cowl collars set the fashion time dial firmly back to the era of the New Romantics.

This was fused with the innate sexiness of his variations on the Little Black Dress.

The best look was a black kimono-style top, which billowed in great contrast to the tight, bright shiny black mini.

Subtle this was not, but then, subtle isn't glam-loving Vaccarello's thing.

VERONIQUE BRANQUINHO

It was the modern bohemian woman on parade.

Veronique Branquinho mixed and matched eclectic references, from wooden African bracelets to Obi-style dresses with belts.

The soundtrack included Marilyn Monroe's sultry "One Silver Dollar" from the Western "River of No Return," which played as cowboy boots and denim studs peppered the looks.

Stetson cowboy hats in Shetland went too far, but overall it was a strong collection for the up-and-coming designer reined in only by its feminine silhouette proportions and textural contrasts that unified the show.

The graceful, slouchy style, now a Branquinho signature, was seen on several of the dropped waist looks, often in beige and fawn.

LE MOINE TRICOTE

Fall-winter sees bright-eyed designer Alice Lemoine brimming with ideas.

First of all, in the unique presentation of her Le Moine Tricote collection via three different mediums in three different rooms: there were edgy photos, vintage-looking video projections, and the clothes themselves on mannequins.

Second of all, there were new ideas in the direction of the up-and-comer's knitwear line itself, which saw the repertoire this season spun out to include stricter woven fabrics. They provided a subtle but welcome contrast to the more feminine thick-knit tailored jackets in black, beige and gray.

The strongest piece in the show was a fantastic black mid-length coat dress that had pockets, a lapel and sleeves in billowing wool to imitate fur.

Despite sporty flashes, the collection overall remained thoroughly feminine, thanks to the natural roundness of the thick-knit silhouettes.

This season, ladylike is the name of the game.

CEDRIC CHARLIER

Architecture, "art brut" and Dutch Master Brueghel were all inspirations behind Cedric Charlier's diverse show.

The first pieces, among the collection's best, mixed up sharp geometric paneling alongside oversize coats with fluid, rounded shoulders.

Ensembles were made up of several layers, like square navy skirts on top of knee-length leggings with a rectangular bib form hanging down.

There were also some great structured sheaths in silky navy and black leather.

It's a far cry from the more fluid looks seen in Charlier's last collection.

The designer said medieval painter Brueghel inspired the bright colors of some of the prints and patterns, as did an early 20th century movement called "art brut" that celebrated art from shunned circles, like mental asylums.

It was an interesting idea that worked on the more simple silhouettes.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

The Obama administration unveiled the budget plan April 10, requesting $50 million less than the agency got in 2012. The budget must be approved by Congress before it becomes official. Under the budget proposal, planetary science would receive $1.217 billion in 2014. Discounting the $50 million earmarked for , which fuels deep space vehicles (this used to be paid for by the Department of Energy), and $20 million for asteroid detection in service of a future manned asteroid mission, this represents a $268 million cut from planetary science funding levels approved by Congress for 2013, advocates said.

"The Planetary Society has deep concerns about the continuedin NASA's 2014 budget proposal," wrote officials from the society, which was founded by astronomer Carl Sagan to promote solar-system exploration, in testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology April 24. "Without immediate investment in technology and mission development not possible under the FY14 proposal the United States will go 'radio dark' in almost all regions of the solar system by the end of the decade." []

The proposed budget would include $105 million in funds to support an asteroid-capture mission and other asteroid studies, but eliminate a planned robotic mission to Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa, which harbors an ocean buried beneath its icy surface that may support microbial life. And current missions, such as NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn and the Messenger orbiter around Mercury, may come to premature ends.

Bill Nye, chief executive officer of the Planetary Society, called the budget "shortsighted and disastrous" in a letter urging supporters to write their Congressional representatives in support of planetary science. The organization aims to send 25,000 messages to Capitol Hill by April 28.

A group of lawmakers also joined in the campaign, penning a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden on April 19 asking that he and the Obama administration rethink their 2013 NASA budget, which is still unfinalized.

"We write to express opposition to any Fiscal Year 2013 NASA Operating Plan that disproportionately applies sequester and across-the-board cuts to the science budget," wrote Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in a letter signed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative John Culberson (R-TX). "While we fully understand that the funding levels enumerated in the bill and report are subject to change to reflect the across the board and sequester cuts, we expect that the balance among programs will remain consistent with the structure directed by Congress."

Follow Clara Moskowitz on and . Follow us, and . Original article on.

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - A gifted scorer, Carmelo Anthony has always had the talent to put the ball in the basket but rarely has he been able to put his team deep into the playoffs.

The pressure is on the Knicks forward with the bruising inside moves and delicate outside touch to prove himself in the postseason and help erase more than a decade of playoff failures for New York.

"It seems like we're starting off with a clean plate right now," Anthony, hungry for a taste of playoff success, told reporters before the opening of second-seeded New York's first-round series against seventh seed Boston Celtics.

Anthony is off to a great start, scoring 36 points in the opener and 34 points in New York's 87-71 Game Two win that gave the Knicks a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

But that is just a start, and despite sporting a new Olympic gold medal and his first NBA scoring title (28.7 points average) on his resume, Anthony is challenged to show he can lift his team and alter a reputation as a high-scoring playoff bust.

Coming into this postseason, Anthony's playoff record with the Knicks was 1-8 after two postseason trips with New York, following a 16-30 postseason mark with the Denver Nuggets.

The Knicks, who have not won a title in 40 years, have not moved past the first round in 13 years. Anthony has advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs only once in nine tries.

"He's had this breakout year, but when the playoffs come, he's going to have to raise his level," Walt Frazier, point guard for New York's last NBA title team in 1973, told the Daily News.

"He'll have new expectations he's going to have to meet. Can he handle the pressure?"

OLYMPIC DIFFERENCE

Second-year guard Iman Shumpert said this is a new Anthony, and that a summer pursuing Olympic gold in London had changed him.

"He's definitely our leader," Shumpert told Reuters in the Knicks locker room before Game Two against Boston. "I think he's done a ton more talking this year ... in the locker room, on the court and especially on defense.

"I think he's just done a great job, an incredible job lifting us and make sure we play the same way all year.

"Definitely a difference between last year and this year," added Shumpert, saying Anthony seemed more confident.

"Any time we find ourselves about to get rattled he sort of just calms everybody down. I think a lot of that comes from him just putting the work in this summer and coming in after that gold medal on a roll already."

Following a rousing Olympics in which Anthony committed to playing tough defense alongside LeBron James against taller opponents on an undersized U.S. team, the Knicks forward came to the new NBA campaign in great shape and with a fierce attitude.

"Whatever we need him to do," Shumpert said. "This year he's been asked to guard a lot of five-men (centers) because sometimes we play small. He hasn't complained. Whatever he has to do he just goes and do it.

"He's watching a ton of film. He's been a flat-out leader. I think it's contagious," he added, pointing to J.R. Smith, who on Tuesday was presented the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award.

"J.R. has been a bigger leader. The focus in the locker room from last year to this year has been night and day."

BEHIND CLASSMATES

For all his personal success, Anthony has languished behind illustrious fellow members of the top of the 2003 NBA Draft.

James, the No. 1 draft pick of 2003, was the man with the pressure turned up ultra high last season.

"King" James, believed to be overdue for an NBA title, got that monkey off his back with a run to the crown with fellow members of the class of 2003 Chris Bosh (No. 4) and Dwyane Wade (No. 5) joining him on the Miami Heat.

Anthony, selected No. 3 in 2003 after winning the U.S. college title as a freshman with Syracuse, is still chasing the NBA dream for New York after being swept by Boston in the first round in 2011 after joining the Knicks in a big trade with Denver, and losing in five to Miami last year.

"No, it don't, it don't," the Brooklyn-born Anthony, a six-time NBA All-Star, told reporters when asked whether the playoffs were putting added pressure on him.

No amount of denial, however, can fill the empty plate.

Only a playoff run to the Eastern Conference finals and a likely date with the Miami Heat will satisfy Madison Square Garden crowds that lavish Anthony with chants of "MVP, MVP, MVP."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

I have a history of alcoholism and she's a hoarder. A week ago, I had an "epiphany": I am desperately trying to quit drinking for my own sake.

Abby, I am a clean freak living with a hoarder. I come home from work and get depressed and stressed from looking at all the clutter. It is driving me insane. I feel like it is triggering me to stay drunk every night.

I don't want to lose this woman and her family, but I can't co-exist in this house. I have left several times, only to miss her and go back. I'm trying to kick the booze, but I know I won't be able to achieve sobriety while living in this house. -- TRULY TORN IN TEXAS

DEAR TRULY TORN: If you quit drinking only a week ago, it is important that you find an AA group to help you hang onto your sobriety. That's step one.

Next, realize that you and the lady you're living with may share a similar problem. You say you are a "clean freak." This can be a symptom of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Hoarding can be a symptom of the same disorder.

The International OCD Foundation is a reliable resource that may be able to help you both. It offers individuals with this disorder the support they need to manage their symptoms, and has many local chapters. You can locate it online at www.ocfoundation.org or reach it by calling 617-973-5801.

DEAR ABBY: Maybe you would like to pass this on to the parents of teenage boys. It worked for me when I had the sex talk with my sons. I knew their brains had not yet fully developed. They thought they were invincible and had an "it could never happen to me" attitude.

Because money seems to be the one thing at that age they can relate to, I decided to turn it into a mathematical problem: I told them that if they got a girl pregnant, they could figure on a minimum of $300 a month child support, multiplied by 12 months for 18 years. (That totals $65,000 -- unless the girl has twins, which would double the amount.)

Then I told them if they were tempted to have unprotected sex, they should look at the girl and ask themselves if they would pay her $65,000 to have sex with them. If they couldn't answer yes, then they needed to walk away.

Abby, it worked! No grandchildren appeared until after they were married. Feel free to share this with other parents who would appreciate a "non-traditional" approach that is effective. -- TONY IN SAN DIEGO

DEAR TONY: Gladly. I'm passing your technique along because money is a great motivator, and your idea makes "cents."

DEAR ABBY: My roommate insists that undershirts should be washed right-side-out. I say as long as you're using detergent and bleach, it doesn't matter. Who is right? -- MR. CLEAN IN OCEANSIDE, CALIF.

DEAR MR. CLEAN: I don't claim to be a domestic goddess, but I don't think there is a right or wrong way to wash undershirts. I have heard, however, that washing garments inside out will prevent lint buildup on the outside, and in the case of denim, less fading.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Good advice for everyone -- teens to seniors -- is in "The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It." To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

The familiar sandbag party that kicked off what city officials call "tuck it in weekend" began in 2009 when residents fought the first of three straight major floods. Students placed 700,000 sandbags in less than two days during the last flood in 2011. Officials and residents hope not nearly as many are needed this year.

The students sandbagged 134 homes throughout the city Friday and headed back to school after lunch was served by grateful residents such as Glenda Bro. About 40 students, mostly from Fargo North, laughed and sang as they tossed sandbags outside the home where Bro and her husband, a Fargo physician, have lived for 32 years.

Bro said it was a relief to have the sandbagging help, which she called "organized and calm." The singing helped.

"That's kind of contagious," Bro said. "Fear is contagious, and so is a happy spirit."

The city has reason to be optimistic.

The latest forecast calls for the Red River to reach a water level between 37 and 39 feet, down a foot from the previous crest range. Although the river begins to spill its banks at 18 feet, few structures are threatened until the water level goes above 38 feet, thanks primarily to increased flood protection efforts in recent years.

"The bottom line is we're in excellent shape to meet the crisis of 2013," said Dennis Walaker, Fargo mayor.

The river measured 21.7 feet at 2 p.m. Friday. Tim Mahoney, Fargo's deputy mayor, said the city would be buttoned up by the end of the weekend, then officials will monitor the river on an hourly basis.

"This weekend what we want to do is tuck it in, which means get all our dikes done, get all our sandbagging done, get everything done," Mahoney said. "And then we wait and watch."

Many students were happy to be outside on what was the first day where temperatures had reached into the 60s this year.

Fargo North student Ross Ashland, 17, also said he felt good about sandbagging because he was forced to evacuate his house during a record flood in 2009. He was also happy to be outside in a T-shirt for the "first time since winter started."

Another North student, Tristin Schoenwald, 16, said most of his classmate wanted to start sandbagging Thursday but weren't complaining about a lower river crest prediction.

"We're happy to help," he said. "The community has always been there for us. It's nice to return the favor."

One 13-year-old sandbagger, Brooke Peterson, is home-schooled student whose friend lives in the neighborhood.

"It's great to help. I love it," she said. "It's a great workout and I'm getting fresh air."

City worker Jim Mohr, who directed sandbag placement behind the Bro home, said the students were extremely coachable.

"They get it down pretty quickly," Mohr said. "It's great to have them."

Although workers placed down plywood in an effort to limit damage to the neighborhoods, it wasn't an issue around Bro's house because it won't be around for long. Not too long ago, the city told her the house was low on the priority list for a buyout. But last Saturday, the city agreed to take it off their hands.

"That is an answered prayer because this house wouldn't sell," Bro said. "Nobody is going to buy a house on the river in Fargo."

___

Follow Dave Kolpack on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/davekolpackap .

GENEVA (Reuters) - Doctors at Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan are having to decide between treating acute cancer patients and helping deliver babies due to severe shortages of cash, the United Nations said on Friday.

More than 1.4 million Syrian refugees have now fled their shattered homeland for neighboring countries whose health care systems are straining to meet the needs of their populations, in some cases suddenly swollen by 20 percent, it said.

But an appeal by U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees for $1 billion through mid-year is only 55 percent covered. This has meant that some of the costly medical care for chronic diseases is being denied, although emergency cases are treated, it said.

"We will prioritize paying for a woman's delivery instead of paying for treatment of a cancer patient with a poor prognosis. That is bad, but we have to do it. These are hard decisions," Dr. Paul Spiegel, UNHCR's chief medical expert, told Reuters.

Acute respiratory infections and diarrhea are the most common ailments among Syrian refugees, three-quarters of whom are women and children, the UNHCR said in its first report based on medical consultations in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. No data was available from Turkey, it said.

Some refugees require treatment for hepatitis A infections, others for skin lesions due to leishmaniasis, it said.

Both diseases have broken out in Syria, whose health system and drug industry have collapsed due to the conflict between Syrian government forces and rebels, now in its third year.

"NOT THE HEALTHIEST POPULATION"

But many of the refugees are elderly, suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, lung disease, cancers or cardiovascular disease, who received free treatment under their country's socialized medical system, it said.

Spiegel, referring to treatment for diabetes, told a news briefing: "With renal dialysis you don't pay for a month and then stop, you pay forever.

"And then very hard decisions are made, and many are not funded, and therefore they either have to find other funding and in some cases, yes these patients may die."

Syrians are used to high-quality medical service, more comparable to that in Europe than in Africa, Spiegel said.

"This is not the healthiest population, there is smoking, a fair bit of obesity and not much exercise," he added.

In Iraq and Jordan, refugees have access to free health care at all levels.

But an "elective care committee" meets each month in Jordan to discuss refugee patients whose treatment exceeds a fixed financial ceiling, UNHCR said. In the first three months of the year, 158 Syrians were reviewed, with treatment approved for cardio cases, prenatal cases and acute renal failure, it said.

In Lebanon, which has a largely privatized health care system and cost sharing is the norm, refugees must pay for referrals to experts for specialized care. An elective care committee held its first meeting in late March to review cases.

Iraq is studying whether to set up such reviews, it said.

"People are spending more out of their pocket. Refugees are coming from a system where they are not used to paying. The longer they stay, the less they have," Spiegel said.

Antonio Guterres, U.N. refugee chief, warned in mid-March that the number of refugees outside Syria could triple by the end of the year from 1 million at that time.

"The challenges of providing access to affordable and quality health care for Syrian refugees will only increase in the months to come," the UNHCR said in its report on Friday.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Michael Roddy)

First-quarter net income fell 4.5 percent to $6.18 billion, or $3.18 per share, from $6.47 billion, or $3.27 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected $3.08 per share, according to the average on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and shares of Chevron rose by 0.4 percent in premarket trading.

Fourth-quarter production was 2.65 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from 2.63 million a year earlier, though down from a particularly strong fourth quarter's 2.67 million.

Increasing output from oil wells has been a struggle for Chevron and larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp , which posted a drop in first-quarter production on Thursday.

Chevron's earnings from the production of oil and gas, or upstream earnings, fell by about a quarter in the United States to $1.13 billion, with operating expenses higher and the average sales price for liquids down to $94 per barrel from $102 a year before.

U.S. downstream earnings, from refining and marketing, declined more than 70 percent, with refinery crude oil input falling by 350,000 barrels per day to 576,000 bpd due to planned work at its largest refinery in Mississippi and an extended crude unit outage at its oldest refinery in Richmond, California.

Chevron is still trying to get Richmond working at normal levels after a fire last August damaged its crude unit, which is expected to start up this month.

Chevron shares rose 0.4 percent to $118.99 in premarket trading on Friday. The stock is up about 10 percent so far this year, compared with a 2 percent rise for Exxon.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

The African coelacanth (SEE-lah-kanth) is closely related to the fish lineage that started to move toward a major evolutionary transformation, living on land And it hasn't changed much from its ancestors of even 300 million years ago, researchers said.

At one time, scientists thought coelacanths died out some 70 million years ago. But in a startling discovery in 1938, a South African fish trawler caught a living specimen. Its close resemblance to its ancient ancestors earned it the "living fossil" nickname.

And in line with that, analysis shows its genes have been remarkably slow to change, an international team of researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Maybe that's because the sea caves where the coelacanth lives provide such a stable environment, said Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, senior author of the paper and a gene expert at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

Modern coelacanths make up two endangered species that live off the east coast of Africa and off Indonesia.They grow to more than 5 feet long and have fleshy fins.

The coelacanth's DNA code, called its genome, is slightly smaller than a human's. Using it as a starting point, the researchers found evidence of changes in genes and in gene-controlling "switches" that evidently aided the move onto land. They involve such things as sense of smell, the immune system and limb development.

Further study of the genome may give more insights into the transition to living on land, they said. Their analysis concluded that a different creature, the lungfish, is the closest living fish relative of animals with limbs, like mammals, but they said the lungfish genome is too big to decode.

The water-to-land transition took tens of millions of years, with limbs developing in primarily aquatic animals as long as nearly 400 million years ago, by some accounts, and a true switchover to life on land by maybe 340 million years ago, said researcher Ted Daeschler.

Daeschler, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, who didn't participate in the new work, said genome research provides a way to tackle some previously unanswerable questions in evolution.

He emphasized that DNA is best used in combination with fossils.

"This is a great detective tool," he said. "You might collect DNA evidence at a crime scene, but you can't ignore the dead body.... With paleontology, we have the dead bodies."

___

Online:

Journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

Coelacanths: http://bit.ly/YsQySV

___Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

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