Birders
There is a new exhibit at the Bell that I saw today. (The Bell Museum is on Church St & U Ave on the UM Mpls campus.) It is only one room but it is very interesting. Dr Bob Zink and a Russian colleague have been doing DNA research on 35 species of birds found in the Caucasus Mts of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan. These "islands" have been isolated for 450,000 years. There is a lot of forest logging there now. The study addresses the question of speciation in this sample of birds. Of the 35 study species, 15 to 20 are probably distinct species, different from their European representatives. .imagine the possibilities for your life lists :=>) Among the species found also in N America are "tree creeper" (brown creeper), "goldcrest" (golden-crowned kinglet), "siskin" (pine siskin), and "wren" (winter wren). Those of you who have birded Europe would also be interested in the chiffchaff & willow warbler (classic sibling species), red-backed shrike, song thrush, redstart, and others. All 35 are shown in excerpts of the bird guide "Birds of Europe" illustrated by Lars Jonsson. The exhibit is small but explains simply how DNA analysis is done. It is useful for understanding the ongoing reclassification of bird species. The video from the exhibit is available here. You might have heard that a big new exhibit on the art of JJAudubon and other bird artists is opening in October at the Bell. more on that later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcGPF2gTRrA GAndersson St Paul ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
