Science, Space and Technology News 2024
A groundbreaking study employing full genome-scale data has revolutionized our understanding of bird evolution, revealing new insights into the phylogenetic relationships among bird species. By analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 363 bird species, the research has redefined the avian family tree, identifying four major clades within Neoaves and shedding light on the complex evolutionary history of birds. Credit: SciTechDaily.
Despite considerable efforts to reconstruct avian evolutionary history and the impacts of the K-Pg event using morphological data and molecular data, the precise branching order and relationships among the neoavian lineages remained contentious. Elementaves is named to reflect the group’s remarkable diversity in ecological niches, representing the major elements of Earth, air, and water. This new family tree resolves some long-standing debates over the relationships among avian species and lays a solid foundation for studying avian evolution and trait development.By employing full genome data across 363 bird species, this is the largest-ever dataset used for phylogenetic analyses of birds.
The researchers found that these radiations coincided with remarkable genetic and morphological changes among birds, including greater mutation rates, smaller body sizes, and larger brains, and larger effective population sizes. “This illustrates the power of comparative genomics: by comparing genomes of living species, we can uncover traces of events that happened 66 million years ago,” Stiller said.
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