kiwi birds / en Kiwi birds younger than originally thought, 老司机直播 research shows /news/kiwi-birds-younger-originally-thought-u-t-research-shows <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Kiwi birds younger than originally thought, 老司机直播 research shows</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/kiwi.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8FOf890- 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/kiwi.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=XOZQbXZW 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/kiwi.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=H1YEhIY3 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/kiwi.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8FOf890-" alt="kiwi bird"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-08-26T12:48:40-04:00" title="Friday, August 26, 2016 - 12:48" class="datetime">Fri, 08/26/2016 - 12:48</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Younger than it looks (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/berton-woodward" hreflang="en">Berton Woodward</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Berton Woodward </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">老司机直播 Scarborough</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/kiwi-birds" hreflang="en">kiwi birds</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-ontario-museum" hreflang="en">Royal Ontario Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>New Zealand鈥檚 kiwi may be one of the world鈥檚 oddest birds 鈥 flightless, nocturnal, an enigmatic dirt digger with nostrils at the end of its long bill. But the national symbol also has a lot to tell the world about evolution during the most recent ice age.</p> <p>According to research published in the prestigious U.S. journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/24/1603795113.full"><em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em></a> by a team led by <strong>Jason Weir</strong>, biological sciences professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, today鈥檚 kiwi are much newer birds 鈥 genetically speaking 鈥 than previously thought. And instead of five known species, Weir says there are 11 types 鈥 either species or subspecies 鈥 alive now, with another six extinct.</p> <p>Earlier research, based on simple methods of DNA testing using a single genetic marker, appeared to show that kiwi had developed into various species before the Pleistocene ice age that began some 2.6 million years ago and ended about 11,000 years ago. Many other creatures around the world had been classed the same way using similar methods.</p> <p>But by deploying new and far more sophisticated DNA testing which tracks thousands of genetic markers on the kiwi genome, Weir鈥檚 research shows kiwi underwent an 鈥渆xplosive鈥 period of genetic diversification 鈥 evolving into new species or subspecies 鈥 during the middle and late Pleistocene period.</p> <p>As ice spread over the land, particularly on New Zealand鈥檚 South Island, kiwi retreated to isolated refuges where they gradually evolved new characteristics over the course of tens of thousands of years. This pattern was repeated continually as the ice expanded and shrank some seven times over a period of nearly 800,000 years.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1792 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Jason_Weir-18.jpg?itok=Z-SrR_u0" typeof="foaf:Image" width="614" loading="lazy"></p> <p>Weir (above, photo by Ken Jones) found that the rate of diversification increased five-fold during the glaciation period, to a level even greater than Charles Darwin鈥檚 famous finches from the Galapagos Islands.</p> <p>Weir is among the first to use the new DNA techniques to measure evolutionary changes. 鈥淭hese new methods are going to be used extensively in the next 10 years,鈥 he says. He expects scientists to revisit evolutionary studies of many birds and animals in North and South America and other parts of the world that had periods of glaciation. 鈥淭he old system is out the window now.鈥</p> <p>Weir and researcher Oliver Haddrath of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) carried out the massive task of analyzing the genetic data was carried out on Canada鈥檚 SciNet supercomputer. Some 300 samples of kiwi blood were collected by two New Zealand collaborators and by <a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/rom-staff/allan-baker">Allan Baker</a>, a New Zealander by birth who was senior curator of ornithology and head of the Department of Natural History at the ROM before he died in 2014. The team also used previously published data from fossilized kiwi material.</p> <p>Funding for the study came from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the University of Toronto Scarborough.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 26 Aug 2016 16:48:40 +0000 lavende4 100272 at