 Beginning in around 1990 a series of phylogenetic studies based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences resulted in substantial revisions being made to the taxonomy.Several groups of birds that had previously been assigned to other families were found to be related to the finches.The Neotropical "Euphonia" and the "Chlorophonia" were formerly placed in the tanager family Thraupidae due to their similar appearance but analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences revealed that both genera were more closely related to the finches.