WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Scientists using genetic sequencing say they've determined the family tree of Hawaiian bird species considered the most endangered bird group in the world.
Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution say DNA studies allowed them to map out the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers.
"There were once more than 55 species of these colorful songbirds, and they are so diverse that historically it wasn't even entirely clear that they were all part of the same group," researcher Heather Lerner, formerly at the Smithsonian and now a biology professor at Earlham College in Indiana, said.
"Some eat seeds, some eat fruit, some eat snails, some eat nectar. Some have the bills of parrots, others of warblers, while some are finch-like and others have straight, thin bills. So the question that we started with was how did this incredible diversity evolve over time," Lerner said.
The answer is in the way the Hawaiian Islands formed, researchers said, as a "conveyor belt" of island formation with new islands popping up as the conveyor belt moved northwest.
Each island that formed provided a blank slate for evolution, so as honeycreeper species moved from one island to another they encountered new habitat and ecological niches, forcing them to adapt and branch off into distinct species, they said.
"It was fascinating to be able to tie a biological system to geological formation and allowed us to become the first to offer a full picture of these birds' adaptive history," study co-author Helen James, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said.
