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That is how I understood it aswell, that an EE is not a breed, simply a decendant of the Ameraucauna and Araucauna carrying the gene
Actually, the opposite of that is more appropriate. The Wiki entry is actually very accurate. They came from common ancestors. The US "Araucanas" of the 1970's bared *very* little resemblance to those of today. In fact, the name "Araucana" was pretty much hijacked by a relatively small group of breeders at that time. In general, prior to and around the time of APA standardization, the Araucanas of the day FAR more closely resembled what are known as Easter Eggers today. That is why I would say it is more appropriate to say the Araucanas and Ameraucanas (which came later) descended (although in the strictest since that is not a good choice of words) from the Easter Eggers. The Easter Eggers just weren't called that until years later after the name Araucana was taken and applied to a relatively small range of birds. Prior to approval by the APA, they were really very haphazard in type and color. There was very little consistency. Most were bearded, but not all. A few here and there were rumpless. Some weren't. VERY few were tufted. Most weren't. They also came in every color imaginable. All were known as "Araucanas".
What basically happened is one group of breeders standardized the type and colors they were breeding for and got them approved as Araucanas. A few years later, another group of breeders that preferred a different type, got theirs approved as Ameraucanas. The name Easter Egger came later as basically a name applied by breeders to describe the birds that didn't fit within either standard. Make no mistake though, the original Araucanas before APA approval far more closely resembled the EE's of today.
