Is a Black Vulture more closely related to a hawk or a European Griffon Vulture?
Answer
A hawk
Taxonomically, the New World Black Vulture is more closely related to a hawk than it is to an Old World vulture like the European Griffon Vulture. The evolutionary divergence between the New World and Old World groups is extremely profound, suggesting that their common ancestor existed long before the modern birds of prey fully evolved. This demonstrates that the common name vulture describes an ecological role rather than a single phylogenetic lineage.
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