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A joint research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Indonesian Institute of Science described an unusual new species of songbird. The bird was named Phylloscopus rotiensis Rote Leaf-Warbler after the island of Rote where it is located. The discovery was published in the journal Scientific Reports on October 23, 2018.
The island of Rote is a dry monsoon island of an area of 1,200 square kilometers located in East of Indonesia. It is about 12 kilometers off Timor and 500 kilometers northwest of Australia. The island is also the site on which a species of new bird in science, the Rote Myzomela Myzomela irianawidodoae, has recently been discovered and the results were published in the journal Treubiaon on December 31, 2017.
The presence of an unknown identity waker on Rote was first reported in December 2004 by Dr. Colin Trainor of Charles Darwin University, Australia. In July 2009, Mr Philippe Verbelen and Ms Veerle Dossche, two Belgian bird watchers, presented detailed observations and obtained a series of photographs of the bird.
"We sounded the alarm bell, realizing how well the beak shape and coloring of Rote's birds have been compared to all other leaved leafs," Verbelen recalls. .
"The new species is part of a large group of Asian warblers, but is unique among them because of its unusually long size," said Dr. Nathaniel. Ng, involved in the description of the bird during his Ph.D. application to the Department of Biological Sciences of the NUS Faculty of Science.
He adds: "This strange form of note is probably an adaptation to the arid landscapes of Rote, since most other warblers live in moist forests."
The scientific description was partially facilitated by comparisons using genomic data collected by next generation sequencing. "It is perhaps the first time, to our knowledge, that a new species of bird has been described in part on the basis of genome-wide genetics data," he says. added Miss Elize Ng, researcher at Avian Evolution Lab (AEL).
"This work would not have been possible without the partnership with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and in particular with Dr. Dewi Prawiradilaga," said Professor Frank Rheindt, badistant professor of the study and Chief of AEL at NUS Department of Biological Sciences
Every year, about five to ten new bird species are described around the world. The fact that this bird is the second new species described by Rote over the last 12 months underlines the conservation value of the island. Rote's natural landscapes are under severe threat as a growing human population is putting increasing pressure on its monsoon forests and savannah. These factors prompted the research team to propose that the bird be officially clbadified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable.
Explore Further:
Leafy Warbler: Discovery of a new species of bird
More information:
A new colorful species of Myzomela Honeyeater from Rote Island, in East of Indonesia. Treubia. 44; 77-100
Nathaniel. S. R. Ng et al. A striking new species of leafy beetle from the Little Sundas, brought to light by morphology and genomics, Scientific Reports (2018). DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-018-34101-7
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