Birds evolving faster in Americas, study says

The rate of evolution of birds appears to be accelerating, particularly in North and South America, says new research based on a genetic family tree of every bird species known to man.

Using a genetic map of 9,993 bird species, a team of researchers — including scientists at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University — found that the rate of bird diversification is increasing, particularly in North America, parts of Asia and South America.

"We find that birds have undergone a strong increase in diversification rate from about 50 million years ago to the near present," the scientists say in a study published in the journal Nature today.

Based on previous studies, the researchers expected to reach the opposite conclusion and find that the rate at which new bird species proliferate would diminish over time, in part as a result of human impacts on natural habitats.

But the scientists, including SFU biologist Arne Mooers, post-doctoral fellow Jeff Joy and colleagues at Yale University, University of Sheffield in the U.K., and the University of Tasmania in Australia, found that the rate at which new species variations are developing is picking up speed.

"Perhaps birds are special," said Mooers in a statement. "Maybe they’re so good at getting around they can escape local competition from relatives and start anew elsewhere, producing bursts of new species at different times and in different parts of the globe."