Genome size and complexity (again).

Some time ago, I wrote about the (non-)relationship between genome size and gene number, which also included some discussion of the obvious decoupling of DNA content and “morphological complexity” (however defined). Now, Steve Matheson of Quintessence of Dust has a fun way of demonstrating this, by asking readers to guess which animals have larger genomes than which others based on intuitive concepts of complexity. Even I have to think about it for some of them, and I actually measured some of those genome sizes! (In part, this is because there is often significant diversity in genome size within groups of morphologically similar species, which in itself shows the disconnect between complexity and DNA amount). The first two installments of the quiz are here and here. Have fun.