The Bird Family Tree Gets a Makeover

In the most thorough genomic investigation to date, some birds perch on new branches

Mar 17, 2015 | |

The new tree confirms many past observations, such as the common ancestor of the core landbirds. It also resolves some controversial links. Who might have guessed, for instance, that pigeons and flamingos are close cousins?

More classification notes:

In addition to 48 bird genomes, the researchers sequenced three crocodilian genomes to pinpoint early descendent relationships.

The separation of penguins, pelicans and ibis from flamingos and grebes (and pigeons) implies that the waterbird trait evolved independently multiple times.

Because of how quickly both land birds and waterbirds evolved, the data suggests that the original ancestors might have been birds that lived along the coastline.

Chickens share the most DNA with the first bird ancestor, closely followed by hoatzin and emu.