The rare bird, spotted in a backyard in Texas, is the first known blue jay-green jay hybrid in the wild, according to a new study.
    • qualia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      6 days ago

      There’s also some anthropocentric assumptions in that article. It refers to the two species’ mating as a mistake multiple times. But horizontal gene transfer, while resulting in higher mortalities of offspring, also has the potential to combine unique evolutionary solutions from different lineages into a single species. Just because it’s atypical doesn’t mean it’s a mistake.

      • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.caOPEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        Just because it’s atypical doesn’t mean it’s a mistake.

        This stood out to me in the article. I even repeated it later to my partner later when talking about it. I’m very curious what the science says about this if it deviates from what they implied in the article.

        • qualia@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          5 days ago

          This study explores a representative example of it across species of fishes. If you want a deeper dive try searching for HGT and synteny index.

          Edit: Also conspecifics are members of the same species, while congenerics are members of the same genus. Another relevant search term.

  • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    20·
    7 days ago

    This was quite an interesting and informative article. Logically, I get how ranges shift, especially as our climate changes. I’ve not read anything directly about it. This is such an interesting example of hybridization.

    The bird had blue feathers on its back and tail and white spots on its wings, similar to a blue jay. But it lacked a blue jay’s spiky crown and had a spot over its eye that is one telltale sign of a green jay. The outlier followed a flock of blue jays and made similar calls. But it also produced the clicks and rattling vocalizations of a green jay.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      7 days ago

      I wonder too… here we have an overlap between scrub jays and Steller’s Jays, but they look close enough that it would be tough to spot a hybrid.

      Hybrid:

      Little darker gray, virtually no white, and a hint of the Steller’s crest on top.

  • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 days ago

    Have they tried shining a UV light on it to see whatever other possible hidden vibrant color patterns might show up?