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An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of amazing phragmite in the forests of the Indonesian island of Rote. The discovery is described in the journal Scientific Reports .
The red-leaved warbler ( of Phylloscopus rotiensis ) has a characteristic long beak. Image credit: Philippe Verbelen.
Named the Round-leaved Warbler ( Phylloscopus rotiensis ), this new species of bird is endemic to the island of Rote, in East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, where she lives in an intact forest primary primary foliage as well as secondary forest.
"Rote Island is a dry monsoon island with an area of 1,200 km 2 . It lies about 12 km from the coast of Timor and about 500 km northwest of Australia, "said ornithologists.
" The island is also the site where a species of a new bird for science, Rote myzomela ( Myzomela irianawidodoae ) was recently discovered. "
The presence of a rover with an unknown identity at Rote was first noted in December 2004 by Dr. Colin Trainor of Charles Darwin University [25]. 19659005] In July 2009, Belgian ornithologists Philippe Verbelen and Veerle Dossche presented detailed observations and obtained a series of photographs of the bird.
"The alarm bells were triggered when we realized how different the shape of the beak was. the coloring of the Rote bird has been compared to that of all other warblers, "said Verbelen.
The red-leaved warbler ( of Phylloscopus rotiensis ). Image credit: Philippe Verbelen.
The Rote Warbler Rote is a small songbird measuring 10.3 cm long and weighing 7.5 g. It has a wingspan of 15.5 cm and a tail of about 3.8 cm.
"The new species is part of a large group of Asian warblers, but is unique among them because of its unusual nature. long bill (about 0.6 inches, or 1.6 cm), "said team member Dr. Nathaniel Ng, a researcher at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS)
"This strange bill is probably an adaptation to the arid landscape of Rote, since most other Asian warblers live in moist forests. "
The scientific description of the Rote leaf warbler was partially aided by a genome-wide badysis of data collected by next-generation sequencing.
" It may well be 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 said. a member of the Elize Ng team, also from the Department of Biological Sciences of NUS.
the work would not have been possible without the partnership with the Indonesian Institute of Science, and especially with Dr. Dewi Prawiradilaga, "said the team leader, Frank Rheindt, also from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences.
Due to Rote Long history of intensive agricultural use on the island, the island has little forest habitat, at the. exception of two forest areas
"We propose to give the Warbler a clbadification of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). Vulnerable according to criteria B1 and B2 of the IUCN Red List 2001, said the researchers.
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Nathaniel SR Ng et al 2018. A striking new species of leaf warbler from the Little Sundas, brought to light by morphology and genomics Scientific Reports 8, issue number Item: 15646; doi: 10.1038 / s41598-018-34101-7
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