Science
A look at the first complete map of one of nature's most diverse classes of life
By Emily Elert Posted 11.15.2012 at 5:00 pm 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, we brought you a story about the first-ever family tree of every living bird on Earth. In addition to that excellent story, we thought you might like to explore the map for yourself. Zoom in on the image below for more detail, and to see our notes about a few of the map's highlights.

The tree starts in the middle of the circle, at 120 million years ago, and time moves forward toward the circle's perimeter. The color of each branch indicates how long it took for a new species to evolve and branch off from its "parent." Also, check out this cool little animation of the tree (that actually looks like a tree).

4 Comments

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scott_t
11/15/12 at 9:10 pm

Well that sucks, I wanted to see 9000 birds in one tree!

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Bagpipes100
11/16/12 at 8:51 am

Let's assume tat all birds are related. Let's make a mathematical model which is incapable of not putting all the taxa on one tree.

Wa-laa!

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Bill.VanOrsdel
11/16/12 at 11:56 am

Can anyone tell me what software was used to create this graphic? I need to create a taxonomy display and have been trying to find this software. Thanks.

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EmilyElert
11/16/12 at 5:11 pm

Hi @Bill.VanOrsdei,
I don't know what software the researchers used to create the map, but I bet they'd be happy to tell you. You can find their names at the top of their research paper, which you can find here: http://birdtree.org/. Good luck!