![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/115370750_courtshipdisplay.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd this milestone, he added, was “just the beginning”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project aims eventually to include a genome from every living species of bird. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, which is a a key contributor through its vast collection of specimens, said this would “advance research on the evolution of birds and aid in the conservation of threatened bird species”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The list of sequences so far now includes rare species such as the Henderson crake, which lives on only one small Pacific island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Dr Braun said it was the humble chicken that was the “model species” for studying some extreme examples of avian evolution – including how giant, flightless birds like the ostrich evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/115370442_chicken.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n“We’ve intensively studied limb development in the chicken,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And we can apply that to this group of birds called the ratites – birds like the ostrich and emu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With the evolution of flightlessness, there were a lot to changes in the limb anatomy – wings get short, flight feathers become useless, their legs get longer and they lose toes, because they’re running instead of perching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With these resources, you have the detail – the code – of how that happened.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/115370438_img_3494-osprey.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nManchester Metropolitan University conservation biologist Dr Alexander Lees called the catalogue a “goldmine of information”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It permits a refined look at the avian tree of life – stretching back into deep time – that may close the door on longstanding arguments between evolutionary biologists about ‘who is whose’ common ancestor,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And new data on more than 60 globally threatened species would be a “crucial toolkit for conservation geneticists”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is information that may prove crucial in reducing extinction risk in the long term for species with tiny population sizes today,” Dr Lees added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scientists have sequenced and recorded the genomes – the genetic make-up or “code of life” – of species from almost every branch of the bird family tree. The 363 species’ genomes, including 267 sequenced for the first time, are catalogued in the journal Nature. It is a list that now features more than 92% of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sensationsocial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}