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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 26 2017, @04:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the Atticus-Finch dept.

The rise of a new species of finch has been observed on a Galapagos island:

A population of finches on the Galapagos has been discovered in the process of becoming a new species.

This is the first example of speciation that scientists have been able to observe directly in the field.

Researchers followed the entire population of finches on a tiny Galapagos island called Daphne Major, for many years, and so they were able to watch the speciation in progress.

The research was published in the journal Science [DOI: 10.1126/science.aao4593] [DX].

Also at BGR and Phys.org (heavy on comments).


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Arik on Sunday November 26 2017, @07:46AM (1 child)

    by Arik (4543) on Sunday November 26 2017, @07:46AM (#601655) Journal
    "It used to be that a species could not make fertile hybrids with another species by definition."

    That's pretty close, but in fact if there is a natural barrier to reproduction that's enough, it doesn't have to be hybrid infertility among the offspring. Wolves and domesticated dogs, for example, are still (usually) considered different species, even though they *can* be mated and produce fertile offspring, because they just don't. The mating signals and timing don't match at all, human intervention, or perhaps some sort of extremely unusual freak occurrence,  is required to making it happen.

    Seems the birds they are talking about are a very similar case. Genetically the sperm and egg are still obviously compatible, but their mating behavior is not. The hybrid even appears to have been some sort of a freak accident which has not repeated and is not expected to repeat. Their mating song and then mating song of the native species are not compatible, therefore they do not mate.

    It's worth noting that even with species who regularly produce infertile hybrids, there are still rare exceptions. Fertile mule mares have been known since ancient times - rare but not completely unheard of.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Sunday November 26 2017, @09:16AM

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday November 26 2017, @09:16AM (#601672) Journal

    "The hybrid even appears to have been some sort of a freak accident"

    > be bird
    > stranded away from home island
    > time passes
    > no hands so can't fap (that's why birds move always in a nervous way, forget about the BS about evading predators)
    > a wild, somewhat familiar, female bird appears!

    freak accident, indeed...

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