Darwin's finches of the Galapagos Islands stand as one of the most impressive examples of evolution. After colonizing the islands, a single ancestral finch species eventually diversified into 13 species of different sizes, bill shapes, and ecologies. Imagine if the distribution of that ancestral species was not limited to a small set of islands, but instead had the entire continent of South America in which to diversify! That is exactly what happened with a group of birds known commonly as the ovenbirds and woodcreepers (family Furnariidae). From a single ancestral species, there are now 326 species that differ wildly in body shape and size, feeding behavior, and nest architecture. The primary goal of the project is to use DNA sequences to reconstruct the evolutionary history of all 326 species of ovenbirds and woodcreepers. Over 97% of the ovenbird and woodcreeper species are found within South America so that an evolutionary tree of all 326 species will permit a detailed understanding of the historical processes that led to the impressive radiation.
A vital component of this collaborative project between U.S., Brazilian, and Venezulean scientists is the research training it will provide. With fieldwork planned in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, young scientists from North and South America will be exposed not only to a diversity of natural environments but will also interact and forge relationships with their international peers. By working together to reconstruct perhaps the most spectacular evolutionary radiations of birds in the world, the researchers will learn how evolution works on a continental scale while training a new generation of scientists. This project has been partially supported by the Office of International Science and Engineering at NSF.
