Galapagos sea life study highlights importance of biodiversity in the face of climate change

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 16, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Galapagos, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

As the world's climate continues to change, biologically diverse communities may be most capable of adapting to environmental challenges.

The researchers modelled the effects of biodiversity by analyzing wave strength in conjunction with the foraging abilities of various fish [Credit: Witman Lab]

While biodiversity's importance in adaptation may be well appreciated already, new research by Brown University biologists studying the effects of wave turbulence on sea creatures paints a clearer picture of why biologically diverse communities are more likely to thrive.

"Lately, there has been a lot of support in the news for maintaining biodiversity," said study author Robert Lamb, a recent Ph.D. graduate from Brown who conducted the study as a biology graduate student. "But rarely do people explain why that is so important. This research helps show why diversity really matters: A more diverse community is more resistant to rapidly changing environmental conditions."

Co-author Jon Witman, a professor of biology at Brown, added that the group's research "will help us understand how whole marine communities -- not just single components -- will be affected by increasing environmental stress in this era of climate change."

The study, published in Ecology, also emphasized the impact of creatures' mobility on their resilience.

Working in the Galapagos Islands, the Brown biologists studied wave motions, conducted underwater experiments and used marine life censuses to evaluate the effects of wave turbulence on sea urchins and fish feeding on algae. The researchers found that urchins were unable to feed in areas with intense waves and therefore preferred sheltered locations. In contrast, fish dominated in more turbulent areas. Unlike urchins, many fish species are highly mobile, allowing them to dart to the seafloor to feed on algae between rough waves and quickly retreat when conditions become dangerous.

Highly mobile foragers appear to favor turbulent areas because these locations contain particularly abundant food sources. Another facet of the study compared the biomass of algae in wave-exposed versus wave-sheltered areas, and it found that wave turbulence enhances algae growth, likely because the motion of the water promotes the delivery of nutrients.

Lastly, the researchers modelled the effects of biodiversity by analyzing wave strength in conjunction with the foraging abilities of various fish. In other words, they predicted the extent to which foraging rates would drop if different numbers of species disappeared from the ecosystem. They found that biodiversity was most important for ecosystems in rapidly changing areas (i.e., areas with intermediate to high wave exposure).

Biodiversity significantly increases grazing rates in these areas -- and grazing is crucial, Lamb said, because a fish's meal serves as the first source of energy in a chain reaction that perpetuates the entire ecosystem. A surgeonfish that consumes algae, for example, can then serve as a food source for an animal higher on the food chain, such as a shark or a sea lion. Fish also help corals grow by reducing competing algae. A more diverse community is likely to include species with greater mobility and tolerance toward stressful environmental conditions, thereby fulfilling these important ecological roles.

Lamb said that the findings are particularly important to consider in the context of climate change. "We must maintain diverse communities through management of our fisheries and marine protected areas," he said. "Diverse and healthy ecosystems will be more resilient to the types of changes that are undoubtedly going to occur."

Going forward, the research team will continue their work in the Galapagos Islands. They're currently conducting chemical analyses to evaluate how the diets of fish are affected when surface waters warm up during El Nino conditions. During El Nino, nutrients sink deep into the ocean, leaving less food for fish that swim closer to the surface.

"For about six months, the sea's surface temperature heats up by about 2.5 degrees Celsius, which is equivalent to many prognoses of long-term climate change," Lamb said. "So it gives us a fast-forward window into the future of what these food webs may actually look like."

Lamb expects that this research will further emphasize the importance of biodiversity. "A more diverse community would be more likely to be accessing a variety of food types," he said, "so if any one particular food type disappears because temperatures increase or because the oceans become acidified or for another environmental reason, there would be other species consuming different food resources that might be able to persist."

Author: Kerry Benson | Source: Brown University [October 16, 2019]

Hybrid species could hold secret to protect Darwin's finches against invasive parasite

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on April 02, 2019 / comment : 0 Endangered Species, Galapagos, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

A hybrid bird species on the Galapagos Islands could help scientists find a way to stop an invasive fly which is killing off the hatchlings of famous Darwin's finches at an alarming rate, according to new research.

Male hybrid tree finch, Galapagos Islands [Credit: Dr. Katharina J. Peters]

10 related species of the iconic Darwin's finches are being threatened by the invasive fly Philornis downsi from South America, which lays its eggs into birds' nests where the predators then hatch and devour defenceless chicks before the parents can react.

Newly hatched maggots take up real estate in a chick's nostril, ear or anywhere they can find blood, and attack at night with more than half of the finches nestlings dying as a result in recent years.

But in a paper published in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science, lead author and Flinders University Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Katharina Peters, says hybrid offspring of two famous species, small and medium tree finches, might be more effective at eliminating the parasite in their nests, or their nests are just not as attractive to the adult flies.

"We found finch hybrids have fewer introduced parasites in their nest when compared to their more famous ancestors, with hybrid nests housing only half the number of deadly flies, potentially revealing an effective defence mechanism to combat what is an invasive parasite," says Dr Peters.

"The hybrids are offspring of small and medium tree finches which aren't anywhere near as effective at defending against the parasitic fly so the hybrids could potentially have an evolutionary advantage."

Adult Philornis downsi fly (left) and larvae (right) [Credit: Katharina J. Peters, Jody O'Connor, 2019]

Finch chicks that do somehow survive the attacks are often left with a reminder of their gruesome battle for life- with a permanent hole in their beak.

Senior author and head of Flinders Bird Lab, Professor Sonia Kleindorfer, says survey data has previously indicated finch species with the higest rate of deadly parasite in their nests, are suffering from a dramatic decline in overall numbers.

"Flies have infected the nests of every land bird species on the four inhabited Galápagos Islands and that includes the famous Darwin's finches, which are part of a heritage system that shaped human thought about how life evolved on planet Earth," says Professor Kleindorfer.

"If nothing is done, it's likely that bird populations will become extinct on different islands in the next decades."

Darwin's finches don't tell the whole story of avian evolution

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 19, 2019 / comment : 0 Biology, Ecosystems, Evolution, Galapagos, Wildlife

The connection between bird diet and skull shape is surprisingly weak for most species according to a new study led by UCL and the Natural History Museum, rewriting our understanding of how ecosystems influence evolution.

This shows the very different skull shape in four different bird species that all eat the same diet: aquatic animals. Despite eating similar diets, they acquire their prey in very different ways and have very different skull shapes. The coloured dots on each skull are the 3D landmarks used to quantify skull shape, and each color represents a different sub region of the skull. From top to bottom, the northern gannet (Morus bassanus), Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), and the Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) [Credit: Dr. Ryan Felice, UCL]

Charles Darwin's 19th century observations of finches on the Galápagos Islands concluded that bird speciation was primarily influenced by ecosystem; the way a bird forages and eats forms its skull shape and drives evolutionary change.

However, a new study by UCL and NHM researchers testing a wider range of species than ever before has found that on a global scale, shared ancestry and behaviour are more important factors than diet.

The study, published in Royal Society journal Proceedings B, tested the skull shape of 352 bird species, representing 159 out of the 195 existing families, making it the largest study of its kind.

"If we apply Darwin's conclusion for different kinds of birds who primarily eat fish, pelicans and penguins should have exactly the same head and beak shape, as they both use their beaks to eat fish. However, pelicans have a long beak and large throat pouch, while penguins' beaks are comparatively small," explained Dr Ryan Felice (UCL Biosciences), one of the authors of the study.

"Although they eat the same thing, pelicans and penguins acquire their prey in different ways, demonstrating the important role behaviour plays in cranial evolution."

Penguins' mouths have a series of spines pointing down their throats, so that food stays in there when caught. Pelicans ingeniously catch fish in their pouch and then tip it back to drain out the water and swallow the fish immediately.

"It is evolutionary history, rather than diet, that has most significantly influenced cranial shape. If you are descended from a duck-like ancestor, you will probably have a duck bill, no matter what diet you have. However, shared diet establishes the parameters of skull evolution, determining the range of potential shapes which can evolve," added Dr Felice.

The researchers also discovered that birds who eat grains - such as finches and quail - and those who survive on the nectar of flowers - like hummingbirds - exhibit the highest rate of cranial evolution. By contrast, terrestrial carnivores - hawks, falcons, owls and other birds who hunt and eat using their talons - exhibit a very slow rate of cranial change.

"This is where natural selection comes into play," said Professor Anjali Goswami, a Research Leader at the Natural History Museum and a co-author on the study.

"Birds that eat nectar or seeds are going to experience lots of competition for resources and must evolve in order to survive."

"Our study focused on the skull, but we hypothesise that other parts of the body could be shaped by diet and ecology, such as wings, talons, and stomachs, as these are the parts of their bodies which are crucial for catching and digesting prey."

The study used state-of-the-art equipment to build high resolution 3D digital models of the bird skulls. This allowed researchers to plot many more points on the skull than previously possible, allowing them to make robust and accurate measurements.

"Our next step is to expand this analysis to other groups of animals, like mammals, reptiles, and dinosaurs," said Dr. Felice. "Our goal is to understand all of the different factors that have shaped skull evolution through time."

Source: University College London [February 19, 2019]

Species 'hotspots' created by immigrant influx or evolutionary speed depending on climate

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 06, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Biology, Evolution, Galapagos, Wildlife

Some corners of the world teem with an extraordinary variety of life. Charles Darwin noted that: "The same spot will support more life if occupied by very diverse forms."

These specimens, from Cambridge University's Museum of Zoology, were collected and labelled on the second voyage of the HMS Beagle (1831-1836) that carried Darwin to the Galapagos Islands. Researchers say these famously diverse finches are an iconic example of rapid speciation in a tropical hotspot [Credit: University of Cambridge/Chris Green]

The question of how these 'hotspots' of biodiversity - from California to the Galapagos - acquired such a wealth of species has long puzzled naturalists.

Now, scientists at the University of Cambridge have conducted a 'big data' study of almost all the world's mammal and bird species to reveal the answer - and it's very different depending on climate.

According to the study, tropical hotspots close to the equator have generated new species at a much faster rate than their surrounding areas during the last 25 million years of evolution.

However, biodiversity hotspots in more temperate northerly regions, such as the Mediterranean basin and Caucasus Mountains, are mainly populated with immigrant species that originated elsewhere.

Scientists say these migrants may well have been escaping the effects of long-term "geological processes" such as vast encroaching glaciers. Warmer climes, as well as peninsulas and mountain ranges, could have offered shelter.

The researchers argue that their new study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows how these "contrasting macroevolutionary routes" have shaped the uneven distribution of species across the planet.

"We've known for decades that just a subset of places on Earth, no more than 20%, contain about half of all vertebrate species. However, we lacked the tools and data to understand why these patterns exist," said senior author Dr Andrew Tanentzap, from Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences.

"Large-scale initiatives to map species across the planet and in the Tree of Life, as well as advances in computing, are expanding our understanding of evolution in exciting ways. This study can now provide an answer to the old question of why diversity varies so much across the world."

Cambridge scientists used new computational techniques to combine several giant datasets. These included the global distribution of 11,093 bird species and 5,302 mammals, and detailed evolutionary trees that track the origin of thousands of organisms through deep time.

In this way, the researchers were able to analyse the development of particularly species-rich areas within each of the Earth's great "biogeographical regions" - from Australasia to the Nearctic.

They found that biodiversity hotspots in the tropics, such as South American forests and Indonesian islands, had higher rates of "speciation" - the formation of new and distinct species - over the last 25 million years.

For example, speciation rates for birds in hotspots of the Indo-Malay region were, on average, 36% higher than that region's non-hotspot areas. Hotspots in the Neotropics had almost 28% greater bird speciation compared to non-hotspots.

"Species generation is faster in the tropics, but we can now see it is extra-quick in these hotspots of biodiversity," said study lead author Dr Javier Igea, also from Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences.

"More rainfall and hotter temperatures bolster the ecosystems of tropical hotspots, producing more plants, more animals that feed on those plants, and so on," he said.

"The greater available energy and range of habitats within these hotspots supported the acceleration of species diversification."


The tropical hotspot of Madagascar, for example, holds 12 species of true lemur that diversified in the last ten million years. All of the 17 species of earthworm mice endemic to the Philippines were generated in the last six million years.

The famously diverse finches Darwin found in the Galapagos Islands, as featured in his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species, are an iconic example of rapid speciation in a tropical hotspot.

However, when it came to the more temperate regions of the Nearctic (North America) and Palearctic (Eurasia and North Africa), the researchers discovered a different story.

While the hotspots of these regions also had a wider range of resource and habitat than neighbouring areas, the data from the evolutionary - or phylogenetic - trees revealed that most of their animals "speciated" somewhere else.

"Biodiversity hotspots in temperate zones have been shaped mainly by migration that occurred during the last 25 million years," said Igea.

"We suspect that this influx of immigrant species resulted from climate fluctuations across millions of years, particularly cooling. Biodiversity hotspots may have acted as a refuge where more species could survive in harsh climatic conditions," he said.

Igea points to species such as the Iberian lynx, now a native of the Mediterranean Basin hotspot, but found in central Europe during the Pleistocene - prior to the last Ice Age.

Or the yellow-billed magpie, which became isolated in California after becoming separated from its ancestral species - most likely due to glaciations - over three million years ago.

"We found that hotspots across the world all have a greater complexity of habitats and more environmental energy, but the processes that drive the biodiversity are very different for tropical and temperate zones," Igea said.

For Tanentzap, the importance of species migration in temperate regions suggests that maintaining connectivity between hotspots should be a priority for future conservation efforts.

"Many of these hotspot regions have species found nowhere else on Earth, yet face devastating levels of habitat loss. Protecting these areas is vital to conserving the natural world's diversity," he said.

Source: University of Cambridge [February 06, 2019]

Darwin's finches have developed a taste for junk food, and it may be impacting their evolution

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on December 03, 2018 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Evolution, Galapagos, Genetics, Wildlife

A UMass Boston professor and his colleagues have published new research showing that feeding on human junk food may be altering the course of evolution in Darwin's finches.

Finches eat off a plate in an urban area of the Galapagos [Credit: K. Gotanda]

Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology Luis De León says feeding on human foods is weakening natural selection on ground finch beaks, which is what drives the formation of new species in the wild. These findings, published in the journal Evolutionary Applications, suggest that the seemingly harmless activity of feeding birds might be altering the course of evolution in the iconic Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos islands.

“If we continue to feed finches, we’re not only affecting the individual species, but the processes that lead to the formation of new species,” De León said. “We’re getting in the way of evolution.”

Galápagos finches are famed for being the inspiration behind Charles Darwin’s pioneering work on evolution. They are an example of adaptive radiation, an evolutionary process that produces new species from a single, rapidly diversifying lineage. Their common ancestor arrived on the Galápagos about two million years ago, and since then Darwin's finches have evolved into more than a dozen recognized species differing in body size, beak shape, and feeding behavior.

De León and fellow researchers from UMass Amherst, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, McGill University, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology were on Santa Cruz Island when they found two forms of medium ground finches — a small and large version — while studying beak size at an isolated, pristine site.

When they repeated the same set of measurements at a nearby urban site, the distinction between the two beak sizes was not present. Studying data collected by other researchers in the 1970s, the researchers could see the two types of medium ground finches had been present in the area before, but something had changed in the last 40-50 years.

They hypothesized that the change might have to do with urbanization and the rapidly increasing human population in that area. In particular, the introduction of novel foods brought by humans.

Finches eat from an egg crate left by the researchers [Credit: University of Massachusetts Boston]

Using egg crates filled with natural seeds and human junk food — chips, cookies, and rice — the researchers tested to see if the finches were in fact feeding on human food and what their preference was, weighing the food before and after to see how much was eaten.

De León said they found that finches in the urban area were almost exclusively feeding on human food. When the experiment was repeated at an isolated site in nature, the finches ignored the trays.

They found that "urban" finches feed on human junk foods, and in fact prefer these foods over their natural diet. This indicates that ongoing urbanization in the Galápagos is eroding the ecological differences that originally drove the formation of species in Darwin's finches.

“In contrast to their natural diet, the finches are changing their diet to human junk food,” De León said. “We know one way finches diversify and become new species is by specializing in different food types. All three or four species of ground finches at urban sites on Santa Cruz Island seem to be converging onto the same junk food diet. If that’s the case, the selection pressures that would be naturally  keeping them apart would be weakening, possibly leading to the collapse of the adaptive radiation of ground finches.”

Researchers also found a strong preference for human foods at EG Beach, a non-urban site visited by tourists located 12 kilometers away from the town of Puerto Ayora. This suggests that human behavior, rather than human population density, is the main driver of finches’ preference for human food, expanding the impacts of urbanization beyond city centers.

Now that the researchers know that finches are changing their diets to human junk food, they need to look at the consequences for the actual evolution of the species on this island.

“When thinking about preserving biodiversity in general, we often focus on preserving individual species,” he said. “What we show with this work is we also need to consider preserving the processes that lead to the formation of species.”

Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology Luis De León studies Darwin's finches [Credit: University of Massachusetts Boston]

De León and a PhD student will return to the Galapagos in January.

De León said they will continue to do more genetic analysis, looking at whether there is an increase in gene flow across the four species of ground finch. Now that the birds are eating the same diet, researchers want to know if they are also interbreeding.

Elaine Montes, a second-year PhD student at UMass Boston who is working with De León, will look at the physiological consequences of human junk food on Galapagos finches by analyzing telomeres, a long chain of repetitive DNA at the end of every chromosome that can shorten due to stress and aging.

“We want to see whether they have a shorter life span than birds in nature,” he said.

De León has worked at UMass Boston for two years. He received his PhD at McGill University, where he started his work on Galapagos finches 14 years ago.

“It’s a fascinating place. Every species is so unique; it captures your imagination. You can imagine how Darwin was fascinated by looking at all those species,” he said. “I feel privileged to essentially walk in Darwin’s footsteps.”

Author: Crystal Valencia | Source: University of Massachusetts Boston [December 03, 2018]

Mineral discoveries in the Galapagos Islands pose a puzzle as to their formation and origin

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 19, 2018 / comment : 0 Earth Science, Galapagos, Geology, Palaeontology

The Galapagos archipelago is one of the most famous groups of islands in the world. Many of the animal and plant species are unique because of the islands' isolated location in the Pacific, 1,000 kilometers off of the coast of Ecuador. Thanks to a recently-signed special cooperation agreement, geoscientists based at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany will have the opportunity in coming years to research the geological development of the Galapagos Islands. An unusual mineral has recently been discovered that raises far-reaching questions about the composition of the magma source from which these oceanic islands were formed.

The island of Daphne to the north of Santa Cruz as seen from an aircraft approaching Baltra Airport. This island consists of a volcanic crater rising 120 meters above sea level [Credit: Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte]

The idea for the collaboration came from geologist Dr. Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte, a member of the Isotope Geology group at JGU's Institute of Geosciences. She has been studying the ages of the rocks from various islands in the archipelago since 2014 and was astounded when she suddenly came across the mineral zircon on a sandy beach.

"It is extremely unusual to find zircons in basalt rock formations, such as those that predominate throughout the Galapagos," explained Rojas-Agramonte. Zircon, a zirconium mineral, is commonly used to date ancient rocks. Zircon takes in trace amounts of uranium when it crystallizes in a newly-formed rock. Over time that uranium slowly decays to lead. The ratio between the lead formed and the uranium left can be used to determine the age of the zircon and thereby its host rock.

Cathode luminescence image of a typical zircon with clearly pronounced concentric zoning. This zoning is evidence of changes in the local chemical composition of the host magma during crystal formation [Credit: Alfred Kroner]

The zircon grains, commonly less than 0.2 millimeters in size, are first investigated under the microscope in Mainz and then, if appropriate, sent to China or Australia to be analyzed using a device called a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe.

"For the purposes of so-called SHRIMP dating, we have been collaborating for many years with a lab in Beijing, the Beijing SHRIMP Center," said Professor Alfred Kröner of JGU, shortly before again departing with Galapagos zircon samples in his luggage.

Unexpected discovery of zircons in basalt rock

It has now been established that the zircon originates from young basalt rock, the main rock type that forms the Galapagos Islands. This rock is produced by volcanic eruptions such as those still occurring in the western sector of the archipelago.

Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte at the heavy mineral concentration on Bahia Barrington beach on Santa Fe Island. Using a technique similar to that of gold panning, the heavy minerals are first extracted from  the sand and concentrated [Credit: Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte]

"Some of our newly discovered zircons are much older, however, than one would expect to find in young magmatic rock," stated Kröner. How exactly these ancient zircons got into the Galapagos basalts remains a mystery. The explanation might well have wide-ranging implications for understanding the Earth's crust-mantle system and the mantle geodynamics of the Earth. One of the current theories is that previously unexplained recycling processes might have taken place in the deep layers of the mantle.

Geoscientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and their colleagues from Spain, Australia, and Ecuador working in a wide range of different disciplines will, for the first time, be collaborating in this project in order to investigate the various hypotheses and search for further pieces of the puzzle that will help provide a solution.

Over the next few years, they will be researching together on the Galapagos in a multi-disciplinary approach designed to explore a geological enigma, the significance of which could extend well beyond simply clarifying the formation of the Galapagos Islands.

Source: Universitaet Mainz [October 19, 2018]

Darwin's finches - where did they actually come from?

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on May 09, 2018 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Biology, Caribbean islands, Evolution, Galapagos, South America

In 1835, Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands and discovered a group of birds that would shape his groundbreaking theory of natural selection. Darwin's Finches are now well-known as a textbook example of animal evolution. But just where did a species synonymous with the discovery of evolution come from? A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances presents some of the best models to date on where these birds actually originated.

Española cactus finch (Geospiza conirostris) [Credit: S. Taylor]

San Diego State University's Erik Funk and Kevin Burns set out to determine the ancestral biogeography - how a species' distribution varies over space and time - of Coerebinae. Coerebinae is a subfamily of birds called tanagers. This group includes the famous Darwin's Finches and their fourteen closest relatives. Using state-of-the-art statistical software, Funk and Burns modeled two competing hypotheses.

Both hypothesis models contained the same geographic area of the Galapagos, South America, and the Caribbean, but one model divided this area into more subregions than the other. The subregions were based on areas that shared similar plants and animals, such as the the Amazon or the Andes. When eight subregions were included in the model, the results indicated that the Caribbean, not the closer South American mainland, was more likely to be the origin of this bird group. However, the opposing model contains only five regions and indicates that the South American mainland is as likely as the Caribbean to be the home to Darwin's Finches' ancestors. The authors conclude that the current data suggest both potential origin sites are equally likely.

Funk says, "the results...were a bit surprising, because they suggested a dispersal pattern that was not necessarily the most 'straightforward' explanation for how these birds arrived in the Galápagos. I think one of the big take-away messages here is the possibility that biogeographic events, like dispersal, may not necessarily happen like logic tells us they should. Darwin's finches are such a highly studied group, and it is often taken for granted they arrived from mainland South America, but hopefully our results show readers that there is no more support for this hypothesis than there is for a Caribbean origin."

Funk and Burns suggested the successful colonization of the Galapagos Islands was a result of two traits. First, the finches' ancestors were more likely to wander than other species and consequently encountered islands more often. Second, these ancestors had a large amount of genetic variation in bill size and shape. This diversity in bill morphology allowed them to establish themselves and exploit their newfound niche. Better understanding the biogeography of Darwin's Finches allows scientists to learn how animals move, and how this affects their subsequent evolution and ability to adapt to new or changing environments.

"In 2018, we still have fundamental things to learn about one of the most studied and celebrated groups of birds, Darwin's Finches. Perhaps we should be calling them Darwin's Tanagers because it is Burns' tree of life for these birds, nesting them firmly in Tanagers, that is enabling new insights into the evolution, morphology, and origins of this remarkable group of birds. Funk and Burns use new biogeographic techniques in conjunction with recent phylogenies to explore the origins of Darwin's Finches," adds Shannon Hackett, Associate Curator in the Department of Zoology, and Head of the Field Museum's Bird Division at the Field Museum, who is an avian diversity and phylogeny expert who was not involved in the research.

Source: American Ornithological Society [May 09, 2018]