By reconstructing the origin and evolution of penguins, the Chinese and foreign joint research team led by Chinese scientists revealed the impact of environmental changes, climate and geological events on species formation, and found a series of molecular bases of key traits that can explain how penguins adapt to the marine ecological environment again. Relevant research results were published in the authoritative academic journal Nature communication on the evening of the 19th. According to Dr. Zhou chengran, the co-author of the paper and the Shenzhen Huada Institute of life sciences, penguins have the characteristics of highly adapting to extreme environments such as the marine environment and the Antarctic. They lost their flight ability about 60million years ago and instead have the strongest diving ability among birds. Observe the evolution of penguins, study the mechanism of their return to the ocean, and explore the impact of environmental changes on them, so that researchers have the opportunity to understand the mechanism of organisms adapting to the aquatic environment and extreme environment, so as to better understand and protect them. Researchers collected and constructed data of almost all known 74 penguin species (including extinct species), comprehensively compared and analyzed extinct species and living groups by integrating genomics and paleontology, and for the first time disclosed the high-quality genomes of all modern penguin species worldwide, including subspecies, local branches and recently extinct species. "Through these data, we have the opportunity to comprehensively reveal the process of species formation and extinction of this large group of penguins. The common ancestor of living penguins appeared about 14million years ago, and then the change of climate and environment promoted the rapid differentiation of penguin species, accompanied by complex gene flow in this process, which had a great impact on the shaping of morphological diversity of living penguins." Zhang Guojie, corresponding author of the paper and professor of the center for life evolution research of Zhejiang University, pointed out. The traditional view is that tropical or temperate organisms have a faster evolution rate than polar organisms, but researchers found that high latitude penguins such as emperor penguins have a faster evolution rate than low latitude penguins. "The pressure caused by the Antarctic environment and historical climate fluctuations jointly promote the diffusion and differentiation of penguins, and to a certain extent promote the adaptation of high latitude species to the polar environment." Zhou chengran explained. In addition, researchers also found that important genes related to penguins' adaptation to special environments have been selected, such as thermoregulation, visual changes, oxygen binding, etc., and found that the mutation sites of hemoglobin and myoglobin enable penguins to make better use of blood oxygen to prolong diving time, while the change of photosensitive genes enables penguins to see short wavelength light such as ultraviolet light, so they have sharp underwater vision. "With the movement of the continental plate and the change of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, penguins have experienced great environmental changes in the past 60 million years, especially from the warm subtropical to the 'cold Hell', but after each environmental upheaval, Penguin lineages have stood out and flourished." Zhang Dexing, the author of the paper and a researcher at the Institute of zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that this shows that penguins have a strong evolutionary adaptability, which makes people optimistic about the future of these magical animals. (outlook new era)