When Steve Gosser heard the song of a scarlet tanager in the woods, he knew to look for a bright-red bird with black wings. But when he laid eyes on the singer, he saw instead a dark-colored head, black-and-white body, with a splash of red on its chest. "Well, that sort of looks like a first-year male rose-breasted grosbeak," he said. The song of one bird coming out of the body of another suggested this little guy could be a rare hybrid. Gosser enlisted the help of some pros, including biologist David Toews, who conducted a genetic analysis to see if this was truly the offspring of two species that diverged 10 million years ago, and today run in very different circles. On today s episode, Gosser and Toews fill Aaron in on this avian mystery, and what hybrid animals can teach us about evolution.
The bird is a combination of the rose-breasted grosbeak and brightly-colored scarlet tanager. It was spotted by self-described “diehard birder” Stephen Gosser in Lawrence County.
A team of researchers was able to use a combination of genomic sequencing and song analysis to identify a rare hybrid bird, whose ancestors haven t shared the same breeding location or lineage for 10 million years.
A team of researchers led by Penn State used a combination of genomic sequencing and song analysis to identify a rare hybrid bird, whose ancestors haven’t shared the same breeding location or lineage for 10 million years.