Hummingbirds' 22-million-year-old history of remarkable change is far from complete

[knocker]

I have a book, John Gould's Humming Birds. It's a re-printed complete collection of 418 hand-painted illustrations that first appeared between 1849-1861. Quite magnificent. Anyway........................

 

 

The first comprehensive map of hummingbirds' 22-million-year-old family tree—reconstructed based on careful analysis of 284 of the world's 338 known species—tells a story of rapid and ongoing diversification. The decade-long study reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 3 also helps to explain how today's hummingbirds came to live where they do.

 

http://www.sciencecodex.com/hummingbirds_22millionyearold_history_of_remarkable_change_is_far_from_complete-131104