Hummingbird History: Study Reveals Creatures Rare, Rapid Evolution

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, discovered a new family tree for hummingbirds--detailing the creature's migration from Europe, Asia and North America before settling in South American nearly 22 million years ago.

"Our study provides a much clearer picture regarding how and when hummingbirds came to be distributed where they are today," said UC Berkeley associate professor of integrative biology and lead author Jimmy McGuire, via a press release.

For the study, researchers collected DNA from 451 hummingbirds that made up 284 species. They also gathered DNA samples from the bird's closest relatives in order to compare mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Scientists used data to construct a family tree made up of the creature's ancestors, who appeared around 42 million years ago after splitting with the swifts and treeswifts.

Researchers note that today, there are 338 recognized hummingbird species. However, that number could more than double in the next 7 million years.

"We are not close to being at the maximum number of hummingbird species," McGuire said, via the release. "If humans weren't around, they would just continue on their merry way, evolving new species over time."

McGuire concludes findings with the hopes to further study the evolution of reptile and amphibian diversity through further examination of how hummingbirds took root in South America.

"It is really difficult to imagine how it started, since hummingbirds are involved in this coevolutionary process with plants that has led to specializations we typically associate with hummingbird plants, such as tubular, often red flowers, with dilute nectar," he said. "They drive the evolution of their own ecosystem. The evolution of hummingbirds has profoundly affected the evolution of the New World flora via codiversification."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Current Biology.