Posted on 05/09/2025 10:42:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers merged genetic data from 9,239 bird species (from nearly 300 studies) plus 1,000 curated entries to build a complete, shareable evolutionary tree. Published in PNAS and integrated into the Open Tree of Life platform, this dynamic database can be continuously updated as new research emerges and serves as a blueprint for mapping other groups of organisms. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
*****************************************************************************
A research team has created a comprehensive evolutionary tree of all bird species, integrating data from hundreds of studies into the Open Tree of Life, a project that continuously updates with new genomic insights.
Professor Emily Jane McTavish and her team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have successfully mapped the evolutionary relationships of every known bird species. This ambitious project has resulted in the most complete bird evolutionary tree to date.
To build this comprehensive phylogenetic tree, the researchers integrated data on 9,239 bird species from nearly 300 scientific studies published between 1990 and 2024. They supplemented this with curated information on an additional 1,000 species. The resulting dataset is designed for easy sharing and continuous updates as new research becomes available.
“People love birds, and a lot of people work on birds. People publish scientific papers about birds’ evolutionary relationships all the time,” McTavish said. “We synthesized all the data to have unified information all in one place.”
The methodology and findings are detailed in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to the authors, this synthesized evolutionary tree has broad potential applications for studying bird evolution and ecology. Moreover, the approach used to build the tree can be adapted to study other groups of animals and plants.
The project started about four years ago when Eliot Miller, then with the Cornell lab, reached out to McTavish, who has been working on software for the Open Tree of Life (OpenTree) project for about a decade.
“Many dozens of bird phylogenies (studies of evolutionary histories using genetics) get published every year, yet their findings — with implications for everything from taxonomy to our understanding of ancestral characters — aren’t necessarily being used for downstream research,” Miller said. “Our project should help to close this research loop so that these studies and their findings are better incorporated into follow-up research.”
Collaboration Through Shared Passion
McTavish said that though she hadn’t met Miller before he asked her to collaborate, this project dovetailed perfectly with her continuing work.
“Eliot is really into birds, and the lab is full of bird experts, and they also develop birding apps such as Merlin and Ebird, so that was their side of it, and I’ve been working on this software to combine evolutionary trees, so that was my side of it,” she explained.
OpenTree is a collaborative project that brings together evolutionary biologists and taxonomy experts to build an accurate, comprehensive evolutionary tree that describes how every named species on Earth is related to every other. It works on a wiki-like model, allowing users to manually upload data to update the tree’s evolutionary relationships.
McTavish explained that as new understandings of relationships emerge, users can add that information to the Tree of Life to ensure that it reflects the most current understanding of evolutionary relationships between species.
Continual Updates in a Growing Tree of Life
With more than 2.5 million species now represented in the Open Tree of Life — and new data constantly streaming in thanks to advances in genome sequencing — McTavish, a biologist with the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences, and a collaborator have been writing software that automatically updates the tree as data emerges.
She said the bird species synthesis fills one more gap in the Open Tree.
Like the new study, the Open Tree project is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, which McTavish said has been crucial for establishing collaborations, gathering data from hundreds of published authors, and sharing information across disciplines and institutions.
“This open science and collaborative environment really made this possible,” she said.
Reference:
“A complete and dynamic tree of birds”
by Emily Jane McTavish, Jeff A. Gerbracht, Mark T. Holder, Marshall J. Iliff, Denis Lepage, Pamela C. Rasmussen, Benjamin D. Redelings, Luna L. Sánchez Reyes and Eliot T. Miller, 29 April 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2409658122
Good one.
I regularly post my survey results to ebird and now a have a HUGE yardbird list (a yardbird is a species that you were able to see or hear while being in your yard). As it stands now, my yardbird list (after a little over two years at our house) sits at 101. Yes, you read right. I’ve identified 101 different species in my backyard. Now to go look for 102… 🙂
That’s pretty cool. May I ask where you live?
Some dinosaurs had feathers. So maybe dinosaurs need to be divided between feathered and unfeathered.
Of course there were two major orders of dinosaurs and birds are descended from one of them only.
An ancient Greek philosopher defined "man" as "a featherless biped with broad nails." So have to make sure none of the featherless dinosaurs had broad nails, or the definition of human beings will need to be further refined.
Yardbirding is quite fun!
You’re in a wonderful spot.
Definitely!
I’m in a suburb of DC and they recently removed the closest thing to ‘woods’ nearby; but I’ve been surprised at how many different birds we see even here.
I think the most beautiful bird song I’ve encountered is that of the Wood Thrush. When I lived near a wood with a creek running through it, the Wood Thrush often sounded like a UFO in an old 1950s movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcR6XrnD7Yc
But anyway, you might consider starting a yard list, if you haven’t already. As you say, it’s surprising just how many different birds can be out there.
The Secret Language Of Birds | 4:19
Ian Anderson - Topic | 6.3K subscribers | 82,100 views | November 8, 2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds
https://archive.org/details/LanguageOfTheBirds/page/n1/mode/2up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mansions
In what state or region is your backyard located?
We'll discuss our methods for creating the phylogeny, why it's important, as well as exciting ways to combine these new tools with birdwatching itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi8EwSo-pYA
Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. https://birdsoftheworld.org
The article: A complete and dynamic tree of birds
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409658122
Open Tree of Life aims to construct a comprehensive, dynamic and digitally-available tree of life by synthesizing published phylogenetic trees along with taxonomic data. The project is a collaborative effort between 11 PIs across 10 institutions. Funded by NSF ABI #1759838, NSF AVAToL #1208809. More information and tutorials at https://opentreeoflife.github.io/
I live on a small, forested lake in Hot Springs Village in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Paradise on earth, as far as I’m concerned. 🙂
Surely Big and Larry are from the same branch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
