An international study led by Chinese and American scientists has revealed that modern birds They began to evolve much earlier than previously thought, even before the dinosaurs would disappear from the face of the Earth.
The study, recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on the analysis of the genomes of 124 species of living birds and the construction of an evolutionary tree for neobirds, a group that includes 95% of all modern birds.
The researchers combined fossil records with genetic data and discovered that the main evolutionary lines of birds can be divided into two groups: terrestrial and aquatic species.
According to experts, the split occurred during the late Cretaceous period (about 87 million years ago), long before the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.
The findings contradict the widespread belief that the extinction of the dinosaurs was followed by rapid evolution of bird species and studies that suggested that the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs eliminated bird competition for resources, which facilitated their rapid diversification into the 11,000 species we see today.
The event that caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs “seems to have had a limited impact on the evolution of birds,” according to one of the authors of the study, Wu Shaoyuan, cited this Monday by the state agency Xinhua.
The researchers who participated in the study also pointed out that a global warming event that occurred 55 million years ago was responsible for the evolution of some modern seabirds such as penguins and seagulls.
Source: Gestion
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