Birds evolved long before the end of the dinosaurs, study indicates | Ecology | Magazine

2024-02-21 01:24:00

The evolution of modern birds began much earlier than previously believed, before the extinction of the dinosaurs, an event with limited impact on the subsequent evolution of birds.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a study led by scientists from China and the United States analyzed the genomes of 124 living bird species and created an evolutionary tree for Neoaves, which include 95 percent of all birds. modern.

Combining fossil records, they discovered that the main lineages of birds can be divided into two groups: one group represents terrestrial species and the other group represents waterfowl. They estimated that this division took place during the Upper Cretaceous period (approximately 87 million years ago), long before the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that wiped out the dinosaurs approximately 66 million years ago, details Europa Press.

The findings challenge the widely held belief that the extinction of dinosaurs was followed by rapid evolution of bird species. Previous studies indicated that the catastrophe caused the elimination of birds’ competition for resources, thus facilitating their rapid diversification into the 11,000 species we see today.

The extinction event “seems to have had a limited impact on the evolution of birds,” said first author Wu Shaoyuan, a professor at Jiangsu Normal University in eastern China, quoted by Xinhua.

Researchers working on the study also found that a global warming event that occurred 55 million years ago was responsible for the evolution of modern seabird species, such as penguins and seagulls.

The new findings provide a more complete and refined perspective on bird evolution, said co-author Zhou Zhonghe of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“The development of modern birds, unlike the previously recognized pattern of rapid evolutionary change, is a gradual and continuous process driven by natural selection. “They tend to align with the diversification of plants, mammals, fish and insects,” Zhou said. (YO)

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