How Do New Birds Species Arise - Livestream

In the evergreen forest of the Pacific Northwest, two species of wood warbler that hybridize are on the brink of forming a new species. A more northern species, the Townsend’s Warbler Setophaga townsendi and a more southern species, the Hermit Warbler Setophaga occidentalis, overlap in range and hybridize. This provides a natural laboratory for understanding the process by which new species arise. By leveraging genomic sequencing, field behavior experiments, and climate and color pigment analyses, we have uncovered the evolutionary genetic basis of speciation in these very precious wood warbler species. I will also discuss why we should treasure existing wildlife species, as speciation is a reversible and treacherous process.

Speaker: Silu Wang, UC Berkeley

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