STEAM Register Staff
Scientists have discovered two new subspecies of Vermilion Flycatcher songbirds in the Galápagos Islands. While this would normally sound like great news, the researchers say that the newly-discovered San Cristóbal Island Vermilion Flycatcher — the smaller of the two — hasn’t been seen since 1987. It is therefore considered to be the first modern extinction of a Galápagos bird species, according to researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco State University (SFSU), the University of New Mexico (UNM), and the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO).
“A species of bird that may be extinct in the Galápagos is a big deal,” says Jack Dumbacher, Academy curator of ornithology and mammalogy and co-author of the study published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. “This marks an important landmark for conservation in the Galápagos, and a call to arms to understand why these birds have declined.”
The California Academy of Sciences houses the largest collection of Galápagos bird specimens in the world. A drawer is seen here with specimens from various species and subspecies of Vermilion Flycatchers. Credit: © Jack Dumbacher and the California Academy of Sciences
For the study, the researchers used molecular data from samples of museum specimens to determine that two subspecies of Vermilion Flycatchers, both found only in the Galápagos, should be elevated from subspecies to full species status. But in the absence of living tissue, the team had to turn to the California Academy of Sciences, which houses the largest collection of Galápagos bird specimens in the world. Specimens collected and preserved over 100 years ago allowed the team to carry out DNA sequencing and piece together an evolutionary history of the species.
Vermilion Flycatchers branched out from an ancestral population into twelve recognized subspecies with ranges that span across the Americas and the Galápagos Islands. This study compares their complex evolutionary history against the way scientific authorities currently classify the species (and subspecies) to look for any inconsistencies.
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“Access to museum collections such as the Academy’s for pursuing these types of studies is invaluable,” says Christopher Witt, study co-author and associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. “Preserved specimens can provide the crucial links needed to better understand how life on Earth evolved.”
This is a young male Galápagos Vermilion Flycatcher on Isabela Island, Galápagos. [NOTE]: This species of Vermilion Flycatcher is not extinct, unlike its close relative, the San Cristóbal Island Vermilion Flycatcher. Credit: © Jack Dumbacher and the California Academy of Sciences
The two new subspecies of the Vermilion Flycatcher are found only in the Galápagos and are so genetically distinct that the team elevated them to full species status: Pyrocephalus nanus (meaning “throughout most of the Galápagos”) and Pyrocephalus dubius (meaning “only on the island of San Cristóbal”). The latter, which is significantly smaller and subtly different in color from the other species, is commonly known as the San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher and hasn’t been seen since 1987.
“Wouldn’t it be great if the San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher weren’t extinct? No one is looking, I’m pretty sure of that,” says Alvaro Jaramillo, study co-author and biologist at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. Searches for the San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher have turned up no evidence so far of its existence on the easternmost island of the archipelago, the only place on Earth it is known to have existed. But Jaramillo claims we shouldn’t be so quick to give up on future sightings. “At the very least, this discovery should motivate people to survey and see if there are any remaining individuals of the species hanging on that we don’t know about.”
While it’s still unknown why the San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher went extinct, the researchers suggest that invasive rats and parasitic flies may be to blame. These invasive species have already severely impacted the remaining populations of Vermilion Flycatchers in the Galápagos, and some islands no longer host populations that once thrived there.
“Sadly, we appear to have lost the San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher,” says Dumbacher, “but we hope that one positive outcome of this research is that we can redouble our efforts to understand its decline and highlight the plight of the remaining species before they follow the same fate.”
Based on material provided by the California Academy of Sciences.
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