Earliest songbirds had an Aussie twang
Republished
The world's songbirds, including this tree sparrow, originated in Australia, then spread throughout the globe (Image: Science/Tommy Holden/BTO)
Nightingales, mockingbirds and songbirds around the world originated in Australia then populated the rest of the globe, a new DNA study suggests.
Until relatively recently, researchers had believed the opposite, that sparrows, finches, wrens, crows, canaries, ravens and sparrows originated in Europe and north America, then had populated Australia.
The U.S. and Swiss study was reported online today by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research led by Dr Keith Barker from the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minnesota looked at the passerines, or perching birds, which make up half the world's birds. Three-quarters of passerines are songbirds.
The scientists conducted the largest ever analysis of passerine DNA to trace the origins of perching birds back to the super-continent Gondwana.
The study showed passerines originated in Western Gondwana, which split into Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, with the sub-species of songbirds evolving in what is now Australia.
Assistant director of the Australian Museum in Sydney, Associate Professor Les Christidis said the study built on research by Australian authors, including himself, in the late 1980s.
He said the suggestion that songbirds originated in Australia was considered "ludicrous" when it was first published.
"When we first suggested this ...we got laughed at by the Americans," he said.
"Australia doesn't have that many birds relative to the rest of the world, so how could it be the centre of everything?
"It turns out that lowly Australia really is the centre. Australia can lay claim to the songbirds without a shadow of a doubt."
He said passerine birds found along the east coast of Australia, such as lyre birds, bower birds, tree creepers and honey eaters were living examples of tens of millions of years of evolution.
Australian ornithologist Wayne Longmore from Museum Victoria said the hypothesis challenged 200 years of thinking.
"Up until the last four or five years it's always been thought that the passerine birds originated in the northern hemisphere and spread south and that's been the gospel for the last 200 years," he said.
The oldest passerine fossil was also found in Australia, dating back to the early Eocene period about 55 million years ago.
Judy Skatssoon
ABC Science Online
ABC Science Online
The world's songbirds, including this tree sparrow, originated in Australia, then spread throughout the globe (Image: Science/Tommy Holden/BTO)
Nightingales, mockingbirds and songbirds around the world originated in Australia then populated the rest of the globe, a new DNA study suggests.
Until relatively recently, researchers had believed the opposite, that sparrows, finches, wrens, crows, canaries, ravens and sparrows originated in Europe and north America, then had populated Australia.
The U.S. and Swiss study was reported online today by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research led by Dr Keith Barker from the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minnesota looked at the passerines, or perching birds, which make up half the world's birds. Three-quarters of passerines are songbirds.
The scientists conducted the largest ever analysis of passerine DNA to trace the origins of perching birds back to the super-continent Gondwana.
The study showed passerines originated in Western Gondwana, which split into Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, with the sub-species of songbirds evolving in what is now Australia.
Assistant director of the Australian Museum in Sydney, Associate Professor Les Christidis said the study built on research by Australian authors, including himself, in the late 1980s.
He said the suggestion that songbirds originated in Australia was considered "ludicrous" when it was first published.
"When we first suggested this ...we got laughed at by the Americans," he said.
"Australia doesn't have that many birds relative to the rest of the world, so how could it be the centre of everything?
"It turns out that lowly Australia really is the centre. Australia can lay claim to the songbirds without a shadow of a doubt."
He said passerine birds found along the east coast of Australia, such as lyre birds, bower birds, tree creepers and honey eaters were living examples of tens of millions of years of evolution.
Australian ornithologist Wayne Longmore from Museum Victoria said the hypothesis challenged 200 years of thinking.
"Up until the last four or five years it's always been thought that the passerine birds originated in the northern hemisphere and spread south and that's been the gospel for the last 200 years," he said.
The oldest passerine fossil was also found in Australia, dating back to the early Eocene period about 55 million years ago.
posted by The Family @ 6:56 PM
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