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Scientists Give Extinct Passenger Pigeon a Place on the Family Tree


October 6, 2010

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With bits of DNA extracted from century-old museum specimens, researchers have found a place for the extinct passenger pigeon in the family tree of pigeons and doves, identifying this unique bird's closest living relatives for the first time. The new analysis, which appears this month in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, reveals that the passenger pigeon was most closely related to other American pigeons, and not to the mourning dove, as was previously suspected.Full Story

Source
California Academy of Sciences

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