[ad_1]
A Pennsylvania-based ornithologist observed a warbler bird in his garden and immediately realized that this bird was unlike any other. In fact, DNA sequencing has shown that this warbler bird is a hybrid of three species in one, which has stunned the scientists.
Natural hybrid birds are extremely important for conservation. Such animals that mate with other species can give birth to sterile offspring or birds so different that no other bird would want to mate with them.
"This tells us that warblers in general seem to be reproductively compatible after millions of years of independent evolution," said Dave Gewmodo, postdoctoral assistant of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "The elements that really define them, their distinct colors and their songs, are probably complementary obstacles, and they do not intersect because they can not, but because they chose not to do it."
Birder Lowell Burket knew something was wrong with the bird sitting in his garden last May. He knew immediately that it was a hybrid because it looked like a Brewster's Warbler, a hybrid of the Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warbler. However, the beautiful bird sang as a third species of bird – the brown-walled warbler. He also wore the red signature plaque of the Brown-breasted Warbler. After observing the bird that he thought was three species in one, he sent an email to the Cornell researchers.
"I tried to give the email a somewhat intellectual sound so they did not believe I was a crackpot," Burket told the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Have the pictures and the video helped."
At first, Toews was skeptical because there were a lot of false alerts on mixed-bird species. However, he was looking for a hybrid between the Vermivoragenus, which includes blue-winged and winged warblers and their hybrids, as well as Setophaga kind, which is the brown-sided warbler. The brown-flanked warbler often fights with Vermivora Warblers on the territory. However, their interaction with women was unclear, according to an article published in Letters of biology.
Toews and Burket managed to catch the bird in a net and take a blood sample before releasing it. Toews analyzed the mitochondrial DNA of the bird and found that it was three species on one. They hypothesized that the hybrid bird was the result of a Golden-winged Warbler and a Blue-winged Warbler that mated to a Brown-sided Warbler.
Since mitochondrial DNA only gives information on the maternal lineage, the analysis does not make it possible to determine whether the mother of the bird is hybrid or not. After further testing, the scientists discovered that the mother was a hybrid. This makes his offspring three species in one and two genera in a single bird, making it the first record of a cross-species hybrid cross with a bird of a different genus, according to the document.
Scientists still do not know if the bird three in one succeeds in breeding with another bird or if it can mate. However, according to Gizmodo, he returned to the Burket area as he flew south this fall.
Physicians, dentists and veterinarians in practice: make an appointment with a dedicated mortgage officer to find out more.
Source link
