How diet has affected the evolution of the
10,000 bird species in the world is still a mystery to evolutionary
biology. A study by Daniel Kissling of the Institute for Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Dynamics (UvA) and colleagues from the University of São
Paulo and the University of Utah shows how diet preferences have
influenced bird diversification over millions of years. The findings
were published in Nature Communications.
Since the seminal work by Charles Darwin, it is know that dietary
habits of birds can affect the evolution of species, such as the beak
sizes of Galapagos finches. However, birds show an astonishing diversity
of species and dietary adaptations, ranging from very small
nectar-feeding hummingbirds to large carnivorous eagles. How such
diverse dietary preferences ultimately lead to differences in
diversification dynamics (i.e. the balance between speciation and
extinction) of different birds has not yet been examined. read more
No comments:
Post a Comment