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posted by martyb on Monday November 20 2017, @06:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the bird-brained-humans-did-them-in dept.

Four billion passenger pigeons vanished. Their large population may have been what did them in

Four billion passenger pigeons once darkened the skies of North America, but by the end of the 19th century, they were all gone. Now, a new study reveals that the birds' large numbers are ironically what did them in. The pigeons evolved quickly, but in such a way to make them more vulnerable to hunting and other threats.

[...] In 2014, Wen-San Huang, an evolutionary biologist at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei, and colleagues turned to DNA in an attempt to solve the mystery. Genetic material from four 19th century museum specimens revealed that the species had relatively low genetic diversity—meaning that most individuals were remarkably similar to each other—and that its numbers had fluctuated 1000-fold for millions of years. Hunting and habitat loss came during a time when the species was already declining, the team concluded, which pushed the birds over the edge.

But the new study lays the lion's share of the blame back on people. Beth Shapiro, a paleogenomicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and colleagues sequenced the complete genomes of two passenger pigeons, and analyzed the mitochondrial genomes—which reside in structures that power cells—of 41 individuals. The specimens came from throughout the bird's range. In addition, they reanalyzed data from Hung's group, and, for comparison, sequenced the bird's closest living relative, the band-tailed pigeon.

[...] [The] passenger pigeon's huge population is what made it vulnerable [DOI: 10.1126/science.aao0960] [DX], Shapiro's team reports today in Science. The birds were able to adapt faster to their environment—and spread these changes quickly within their population—but this also caused all of them to be fairly genetically similar. And when a new threat—like human hunters and habitat loss—came around, they suddenly found their physiology and behavior were poorly suited for their declining numbers. Their population "went from being superbig to supersmall so fast they didn't have time to adapt," in part because they lacked the diversity to cope with this new way of living, Shapiro says.

Also at NYT and NPR.

According to Wikipedia:

The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species. The scientific name also refers to its migratory characteristics.


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  • (Score: 1) by insanumingenium on Monday November 20 2017, @08:16PM (1 child)

    by insanumingenium (4824) on Monday November 20 2017, @08:16PM (#599373) Journal

    The fact that they wouldn't breed without a huge population present made a big difference too. Which without reading TFA I assume is what they are referring to. Even after we placed protections, the population was too far gone to breed back even with a comparatively large number of birds left. Presumably the ability to breed without a thousand friends watching was something that if they were killed off slower they could have adapted.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:14AM

    by edIII (791) on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:14AM (#599449)

    Presumably the ability to breed without a thousand friends watching was something that if they were killed off slower they could have adapted.

    I thought that was a very fucking weird thing for them to need, till I sat back and realized what human beings do with the Internet now that we have it.....

    Can you imagine if we evolved that need, and the Internet disappeared forever? Sad people unable to reproduce anymore because they don't know how without teledildonics. I'm fairly certain thought that we would figure it out again. We're a horny species.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.