The Flamingo’s Closest Relatives

Musings & News, Water and Shore
American flamingos in Celestún National Park, Yucatán, Mexico (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Because they have long necks and long legs and stand around in shallow water you would think that flamingos are related to herons, but they’re not.

DNA sequencing has shown that the flamingos’ closest relatives are grebes.

Horned grebes in western PA, Feb 2014 (photo by Steve Gosser)

Read more about their amazing relationship in this vintage article:

Unlikely Relatives

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Steve Gosser; click on the captions to see the originals)

One thought on “The Flamingo’s Closest Relatives”

  1. Unrelated to the post but possibly of interest.

    Fossilized insect from 100 million years ago is oldest record of primitive bee with pollen

    The female bee, which became stuck in tree resin and thus preserved in amber, has been identified by Oregon State University researcher George Poinar Jr. as a new family, genus and species.

    The mid-Cretaceous fossil from Myanmar provides the first record of a primitive bee with pollen and also the first record of the beetle parasites, which continue to show up on modern bees today.

    Etc.

    Reply

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