The emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the second-tallest living bird after the ostrich, its ratite relative. It is endemic to Australia. They are soft-feathered, flightless, with long necks and legs, and can reach up to 1.9 metres (6 ft 3 in) in height (modified from Wikipedia entry). This sample of a female born in the Bronx Zoo, New York, and collected in collaboration with the World Conservation Society (WCS), coordinated by Susie Bartlett of the WCS and Erich Jarvis and Kathleen Horan of Rockefeller University, to be used to generate a high-quality reference genome assembly for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genomes Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.
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