I think this may just be careless writing, DNA can tell you about
relationships and ancestry, but it can't tell you whether a bird is
nocturnal or not without seeing the phenotype!
John Leonard
2008/6/27 Andrew Taylor <>:
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 05:21:39PM +1000, John Leonard wrote:
>> The business about the Tinamous is puzzling, but the
>> hummingbird/nightjar link could be explained by having their common
>> ancestor a diurnal bird, nightjars then later becoming nocturnal as
>> the hummingbirds became specialised for nectar feeding.
>
> The paper (abstract) definitely says a nocturnal ancestor but one of
> the authors posting on USENET (linked below) says probably crepuscular.
> http://groups.google.com/group/talk.origins/browse_thread/thread/c013b4b1e2944489
>
> Interestingly this 2006 paper also says a nocturnal ancestor for
> hummingbirds/swifts - not sure how independent their data is:
> http://www.senckenberg.de/files/content/forschung/abteilung/terrzool/ornithologie/neoaves.pdf
>
> Andrew
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--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
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