Bird Family Tree

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A Yale-led scientific team has produced the most comprehensive family tree for birds to date, connecting all living bird species -- nearly 10,000 in total -- and revealing surprising new details about their evolutionary history and its geographic context.

Analysis of the family tree shows when and where birds diversified -- and that birds' diversification rate has increased over the last 50 million years, challenging the conventional wisdom of biodiversity experts.

"Evolutionary biology: Birds of a feather"

Authors:

• Robert E. Ricklefs
• & Mark Pagel

Published online

31 October 2012

Nature

doi:10.1038/nature11642