We may be wrong about birds

A small detail, but with major consequences, complicates what scientists have known so far about bird classification.

the Dinosaurs In our time this means the birds, they are currently the closest thing to the prehistoric creatures that have fascinated us so much. Today they know each other 10 thousand speciesIt is the same thing that scientists are looking for Organization in the family tree This helps us understand how the last dinosaurs dominated the skies.

This work, as can be assumed, contains enormous complexity. It happens, even though the path has been taken, now Two recently published studies reveal that there may be a mistake Essential in reconstruction. Articles are in magazines Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Bnas) and nature.

Two trees, a problem to be solved

What emerged for the scientists involved in the research is just that An event that occurred 65 million years ago led them into error. This detail is just that Part of a chromosome that has spent millions of years frozen at the right time and refuse to mix with nearby DNA.

The specialists were sure of it Birds can be grouped into two broad categories, the existence of flamingos and pigeons as evolutionary cousins. The new proposal, taking into account the error, He points out four groups and places the previous birds far apart from each other In their kinship.

You might be interested: Beginning to uncover the origin of the first animals on Earth

“We had no idea it existed A large portion of the genome with unusual behavior. “We found it,” he says. Edward Brownlead author of the article published in PNAS and professor of biology at the University of Florida (US).

The team is supervised brown Issue information that puts previous businesses in trouble. He and his colleague, Siavash MirarabProfessor of Computer Engineering at the University of California (USA), also contributed to A Supplementary articlewhich was published in nature.

You may be interested in: World Animal Day: These are the four species that are endemic to Mexico and are threatened with extinction

Since there are two different family trees, scientists are also concerned that something similar might happen in a study Other animals. It's obviously dangerous, since then It could radically change what you know about evolutionary history.

Read on:

Lampreys: These animals have more in common with us than you might think

These are the animals you should not have as pets

What do we know about tardigrades, animals that defy death?

Scooby and animal abuse

Colossal Biosciences, a company that wants to revive extinct animals