There is a saying that "Asia and Europe have no hummingbirds". Actually, it is. The 338 known species of hummingbirds are all concentrated in Latin America, and the vast majority of them are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Hummingbirds, as their name suggests, mainly feed on nectar. Of course, they also prey on small insects like other birds.

Scientists have long believed that hummingbirds are "native" to the Americas. But in 2004, German scientists discovered a 30-million-year-old hummingbird fossil in Baden-Wuburg, Germany, which also changed the view of the zoological community and brought important information to the evolution of hummingbirds.

Because hummingbirds are so small, it is difficult to leave fossils. Until now, fossils from 10,000 to 2 million years ago have only been found in soil layers in Brazil. This hummingbird fossil found in Germany is not too hummingbird-like, but more like a swift in shape. This also shows that in ancient times, the ancestors of hummingbirds and swifts had a very close relationship. Scientists have also confirmed this conjecture after sequencing the genes of hummingbirds and swifts.

According to hummingbirds' research on hummingbird habits, scientists have also made this speculation: 20 million years ago, due to changes in the environment, hummingbirds have been changing and remodeling themselves at an extremely fast rate. And because of a coincidence, a hummingbird migrated from Europe to South America 20 million years ago, and quickly adapted to the environment there, and then quickly produced many branches. In Eurasia, due to climate change, the hummingbirds here have become extinct, so hummingbirds have become the "specialty" of the Americas.

For now, the population evolution of hummingbirds is still in a very active state, and they have also migrated to North America and profoundly affected the flora of the continent. In some places, the number of hummingbirds has reached saturation, and in some places, hummingbirds have undergone new evolution in order to adapt to the environment.

Hummingbirds encountered a crisis of survival on a continent, so they migrated to new continents, and new evolution occurred. This situation is by no means unique. The camel as we know it is also a typical example. 45 million years ago, camels lived in North America, but 3 million years ago, some camels migrated to South America and evolved into llamas or alpacas; while some migrated to Asia through the Bering Strait and evolved Become a Bactrian camel. And 2 million years ago, camels in North America went extinct. It can be seen that the evolution of biology is never limited to a closed space, and there are more possibilities for us to explore.