Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches
Examples of sympatric speciation in nature are rare and hotly debated. We describe the parallel speciation of finches on two small islands in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Nesospiza buntings are a classic example of a simple adaptive radiation, with two species on eac...
Published in: | Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2007
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1138829 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1138829 |
id |
craaas:10.1126/science.1138829 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
craaas:10.1126/science.1138829 2024-06-09T07:49:33+00:00 Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches Ryan, Peter G. Bloomer, Paulette Moloney, Coleen L. Grant, Tyron J. Delport, Wayne 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1138829 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1138829 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science volume 315, issue 5817, page 1420-1423 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 journal-article 2007 craaas https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138829 2024-05-16T12:55:07Z Examples of sympatric speciation in nature are rare and hotly debated. We describe the parallel speciation of finches on two small islands in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Nesospiza buntings are a classic example of a simple adaptive radiation, with two species on each island: an abundant small-billed dietary generalist and a scarce large-billed specialist. Their morphological diversity closely matches the available spectrum of seed sizes, and genetic evidence suggests that they evolved independently on each island. Speciation is complete on the smaller island, where there is a single habitat with strongly bimodal seed size abundance, but is incomplete on the larger island, where a greater diversity of habitats has resulted in three lineages. Our study suggests that the buntings have undergone parallel ecological speciation. Article in Journal/Newspaper South Atlantic Ocean AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Tristan ENVELOPE(140.900,140.900,-66.735,-66.735) Science 315 5817 1420 1423 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) |
op_collection_id |
craaas |
language |
English |
description |
Examples of sympatric speciation in nature are rare and hotly debated. We describe the parallel speciation of finches on two small islands in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Nesospiza buntings are a classic example of a simple adaptive radiation, with two species on each island: an abundant small-billed dietary generalist and a scarce large-billed specialist. Their morphological diversity closely matches the available spectrum of seed sizes, and genetic evidence suggests that they evolved independently on each island. Speciation is complete on the smaller island, where there is a single habitat with strongly bimodal seed size abundance, but is incomplete on the larger island, where a greater diversity of habitats has resulted in three lineages. Our study suggests that the buntings have undergone parallel ecological speciation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ryan, Peter G. Bloomer, Paulette Moloney, Coleen L. Grant, Tyron J. Delport, Wayne |
spellingShingle |
Ryan, Peter G. Bloomer, Paulette Moloney, Coleen L. Grant, Tyron J. Delport, Wayne Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
author_facet |
Ryan, Peter G. Bloomer, Paulette Moloney, Coleen L. Grant, Tyron J. Delport, Wayne |
author_sort |
Ryan, Peter G. |
title |
Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
title_short |
Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
title_full |
Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
title_fullStr |
Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecological Speciation in South Atlantic Island Finches |
title_sort |
ecological speciation in south atlantic island finches |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1138829 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1138829 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(140.900,140.900,-66.735,-66.735) |
geographic |
Tristan |
geographic_facet |
Tristan |
genre |
South Atlantic Ocean |
genre_facet |
South Atlantic Ocean |
op_source |
Science volume 315, issue 5817, page 1420-1423 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138829 |
container_title |
Science |
container_volume |
315 |
container_issue |
5817 |
container_start_page |
1420 |
op_container_end_page |
1423 |
_version_ |
1801382233239453696 |