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Story summary
- University of Michigan scientists used AI on 170,000 bird-skeleton measurements to track 45 million years of shape change.
- The AI measured a dozen bones per specimen and identified a rapid body-shape burst 35 million years ago during the Eocene-Oligocene Transition.
- A slowdown emerged about 15 million years ago, matching later cooling and niche saturation.
- Jake Berv, a University of Michigan researcher, said the pattern fits theories linking radiations to new ecological opportunities.
