The oceanic archipelagos are key scenarios for investigating the evolution of biodiversity . Its geographic isolation encourages rapid speciation processes , that is, the formation of new species.
This is what a study published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution has focused on, carried out by researchers from the University of Oviedo and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), which has used phylogenetics and genetic diversity patterns to infer the times of colonization of the common finch , from the Iberian Peninsula, throughout Macaronesia.
According to his study, the journey that the most adventurous common finches followed, those who decided to leave the continent and enter the Atlantic Ocean, would have passed through the Azores, continuing through Madeira, until they reached the Canary Islands, about 500,000 years ago.
However, his study does not end there. During the leaps from archipelago to archipelago, the finches that stayed along the way, and those that continued to advance, underwent a rapid process of evolutionary radiation, that is, their genomes were differentiating considerably quickly. In fact, the first differentiation of the common finch occurred about 830,000 years ago, coinciding with its arrival in the Azores.
Thanks to this research, in which more than 100,000 different genes were analyzed from 80 specimens of each common finch population of Macaronesia, it has been discovered that this bird hides up to five different species located in Azores, Madeira, Eurasia, the north of Africa, and also in the Canary Islands.
The Canary Island finch (Fringilla coelebs ssp. Canariensis ) , until now considered a subspecies of the peninsular, has been reclassified as an endemic species of the islands, that is, it is not found anywhere else on the planet. Recently, this bird has been renamed the Canary Finch ( Fringilla canariensis ) , pending approval from the scientific community.
The research team is confident that the acceptance process for this new species will not take too long . They affirm that “We make a taxonomic proposal; then the scientific community can accept it or publish replicas that we honestly do not expect. Finally, it will be the scientific ornithological societies that will have to recognize this new classification ”.
Giving a call to attention to the authorities, the ecologist Juan Carlos Illera, professor at the University of Oviedo and researcher at the Mixed Institute for Biodiversity Research (IMIB, University of Oviedo-Principado de Asturias-CSIC), highlights the importance of protection of these new endemisms. “The implications of this reclassification are very important, because the taxonomic uniqueness of finches is much more relevant than previously thought, and therefore our responsibility to protect it is also greater,” says the scientist. “If the Canary finch disappeared, it would be considered an ecological drama, since this would mean the loss of this species worldwide,” he concludes.
References:
Recuerda, M., Illera, J. C., Blanco, G., Zardoya, R., & Milá, B. (2021). Sequential colonization of oceanic archipelagos led to a species-level radiation in the common chaffinch complex (Aves: Fringilla coelebs). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 164, 107291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107291
