An
underlying selection mechanism prevents one color from dominating
Date: April 23, 2019
Source: Cornell University
There
appears to be an underlying selection mechanism at work among Gouldian Finches
-- a mechanism that allows this species to produce and maintain individuals
with red heads, black heads, and yellow heads. Research by scientists from the
the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, and other institutions, reveals what this additional evolutionary
process might be. Findings were published today in the journal Nature
Communications.
"Most
people have heard of natural selection," says lead author Kang-Wook Kim at
the University of Sheffield. "But 'survival of the fittest' cannot explain
the color diversity we see in the Gouldian Finch. We demonstrate that there is
another evolutionary process -- balancing selection -- that has maintained the
black or red head color over thousands of generations."
The
yellow-headed type (actually more orange) is produced by a completely different
mechanism that is not yet understood. Yellow-headed Gouldian Finches make up
less than one percent of the wild population.
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