A recent UF research project focusing on the evolution of birds may ruffle some feathers in the science community.
One example of controversial findings is the discovery that common North American birds such as mockingbirds and blue jays are closely related to parrots.
David Steadman, curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History and a lead investigator of the study, said the links suggested by studying the molecular genetics of the birds surprised him.
Steadman said the study, conducted by UF and four additional universities, is the most massive data set ever gathered for bird evolution.
The study was featured in a Thursday article in Science, a weekly science journal, according to a UF news release.
UF's participation in the research was funded by a $455,000 grant from the National Science Foundation through its Assembling the Tree of Life research program.
To conduct the research, the team targeted and sequenced particular genes of 169 species of birds and compared them to examine their relationships and determine when they appeared in evolutionary history, Kimball said.
If the results are verified by other studies, it will require changing current classifications and revising textbooks and field guides, said Rebecca Kimball, an associate professor of zoology at UF and a lead investigator of the research. She does not expect the changes to come immediately.
