Get ready to spread your wings, because the bird world just got a major makeover! 
An international team of scientists has shaken up the avian family tree, giving us a fresh look at how our feathered friends evolved.
Despite decades of effort, figuring out how different bird lineages are related has been a real puzzle. But now, led by zoologists from China's Zhejiang University, researchers analyzed the genomes of 363 bird species—that's 92% of all existing bird families! 
The result? A brand-new evolutionary tree that classifies the vast majority of birds, known as Neoaves, into four major groups:
- Mirandornithes—think flamingos
- Columbaves—like our city-dwelling pigeons
- Telluraves—including parrots and eagles
- Elementaves—a new group featuring seagulls, albatrosses, penguins, hoatzins, and swifts
This new grouping, especially the Elementaves, makes up about 14% of all modern bird species. Pretty cool, right?
The team also confirmed that when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct around 66 million years ago (goodbye, T-Rex! 
), it opened up tons of opportunities for birds to evolve and fill new ecological niches.
\"Our work has changed many traditional views on the evolutionary history of birds,\" said Zhang Guojie from Zhejiang University. \"This new family tree will serve as a solid backbone for mapping the evolutionary history of all bird species with important implications for ornithological research and biodiversity studies.\"
This groundbreaking study is part of the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project, an epic international collaboration aiming to map the genomes of all 10,500 existing bird species. Talk about soaring to new heights! 
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
