Asteroid that killed dinosaurs was a ‘big bang’ for bird evolution

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Australian scientists have helped redraw the “tree of life” for almost every bird on earth, with a study finding their ancestors emerged after the dinosaurs disappeared.

From the ashes of the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds arose in an evolutionary blitz that would eventually bring albatross to Atlantic skies, emus to the outback and lorikeets to our windowsills.

“But now, because we’ve got the largest data set that we’ve ever used for studying birds, we think we’ve got the most confident estimate,” Ho said. The fossilised magpie leg bone was one of almost 200 fossils used to build the evolutionary timeline, according to Dr Nguyen.But these groups account for only 5 per cent of bird species. The rest are within the Neoaves clade , comprising birds as diverse as kingfishers, boobies, toucans, sparrows, owls, penguins, woodpeckers and wedge-tailed eagles. Their ancestors, Nguyen said, emerged in a “big bang” evolution event after the dinosaurs disappeared.

 

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