Date: November 9, 2016
Source: Texas A&M AgriLife
A Texas A&M University team has discovered three never
before documented bird species, and there could well be more, the team's leader
said.
Dr. Gary Voelker, professor and curator of birds in the
department of wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M University,
College Station, headed the recent discovery of a trio of similar African birds
living in close proximity, but that are different species which share no common
genes.
Voelker was lead author on an article published recently in
the scientific journal Systematics and Biodiversity discussing that discovery.
"The discovery of these three new species is a good
example of the amount of potentially hidden diversity living in Afrotropical
forests," Voelker said. "Our evidence runs directly counter to the
belief of earlier research that said Afrotropical forests are static places
where little evolutionary diversification has occurred.
"The areas were referred to as 'museums' of diversity,
meaning they believed because many of the birds look similar across their
ranges, then they probably were the same species. That's a point we are finding
not to be true."
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