[tn-bird] Interesting magazine article
- From: David Trently <dtrently@xxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 07:05:08
On Saturday, I received my May issue of "Avian Nomenclature" magazine and
read a very interesting article. I had been wondering about this
possibility, and it had been discussed a couple years ago on the BirdChat
listserve - we didn't know someone was actually researching it. The article
is titled, "A New Split of an Old Species". It was authored by R. Warren
McDonald and Brooks Jameson, researchers at the College of Trenton.
Over a two year period, they studied the House Sparrow, Passer domesticus.
The question they wanted to answer was, "Since this species has been
separated from its original stock for over 100 years, is it possible it has
evolved far enough away from its parent strain to have become a separate
species?"
The researchers isolated pairs of these Old World finches in cages, 37 male
American House Sparrows and 37 female European ones...and 42 pairs with
European males and American females. Not one of the 79 pairs produced any
offspring!! Only two pairs showed an interest in mating. (3 individuals
died prematurely)
They also did DNA studies to compare the genetics of the two groups. They
found a significant difference in the DNA, enough for them to declare that
these were now two separate species!
Birders who travel to Europe and see the House Sparrow there can now add a
new species to their lists!! The European bird will remain House Sparrow,
Passer domesticus, while our American bird will tentatively become
McDonald's Weaver-Finch, reverting to the 'finch' name, as that is more
correct than 'sparrow', with the scientific name Passer oroarchicus.
So, does that mean we now have on eless exotic bird out there?
Remember, if you read it on the internet, it has to be true!
David Trently,
Knoxville, TN
dtrently@xxxxxxx
4-1-02
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