On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 05:51:31PM +1000, Murray Lord wrote:
> If you read the scientific literature you will find plenty of
> justification for recent splits.
And there may be plenty to come. I was at a couple of recent talks on
evolution in Amazonian birds which presented genetic data suggested rivers
may be more effective barriers to rainforest birds than you'd expect.
For one Antbird, based on limited genetic sampling, the differentiation
was such that it looked as though it should be split into five species.
And for another species, a 9-way split was conceivable. This isn't a
matter of changing species definitions - it looked to me these would
be classical BSC species. The presenters didn't discuss this. They
were focused on evolutionary history, not species status.
I don't understand how a 50-100m wide river acts as a such a long-term
barrier and there is obviously a great deal of research to be done
but in the next decade or so expect a lot a splitting where birds have
pan-Amazonian distribution
Andrew
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