The Early Bird

This looks interesting: The Early Bird Project. Some University of Florida folks are partners in an effort to map the evolutionary relationships of birds. No, not just a few birds. A bunch of them.

For more than five years, the Early Bird Project has been examining DNA from all major living groups of birds. So far, scientists have built a dataset of more than 32 kilobases — a kilobase is a DNA fragment containing 1,000 base pairs — from 19 different locations on the DNA of each of 169 bird species. The result is equivalent to a small genome project.

The study’s results are so broad that the scientific names of dozens of birds will have to be changed, and biology textbooks and birdwatchers’ field guides will have to be revised.

About Brandon Haught

Communications Director for Florida Citizens for Science.
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