At the Museum 



American Museum S Natural History ^ www.amnh.org 



Islands Generate Bird Biodiversity 



Island life sounds quite appealing in 

 winter months as many of us mi- 

 grate to warmer and lusher locales. 

 Islands and their flora and fauna also 

 hold a special fascination for scientists 

 and naturalists, as they've discovered 

 islands' rich biodiversity and the large 

 proportion of species found on single 

 islands and nowhere else on Earth. 



Now, two American Museum of 

 Natural History biologists have over- 

 turned conventional thinking that 

 islands are evolutionary "dead-ends" with 

 a study demonstrating that biodiversity 

 flows "upstream" — from islands to 

 continents, as well as "downstream" — 

 from continents to islands — by showing 

 that birds from widely dispersed South 

 Pacific islands have contributed to conti- 

 nental bird biodiversity in Australia. 



This new study of a diverse and 

 brilliantly colored bird family — the 

 monarch flycatchers, found throughout 

 Australasia and the tropical Pacific — by 

 Christopher E. Filardi, biodiversity 



Female Monarcha richardsii 



scientist in the Museum's Center for 

 Biodiversity and Conservation and 

 Department of Ornithology, and Robert 

 G. Moyle, research scientist in the 

 Museum's Department of Ornithology 

 and Ambrose Monell Molecular Labora- 

 tory, was published in the November 

 lo, 2005, issue of the journal Nature. 



Drs. Filardi and Moyle arrived at new 

 estimates of the evolutionary relation- 

 ships among these birds based on the 



genetic relatedness among species in an 

 attempt to understand the processes be- 

 hind the pattern of the birds' geographi- 

 cal distribution. Their analysis shows 

 that a large and diverse array of 

 monarch flycatchers resulted from a sin- 

 gle radiation involving nearly every 

 major Pacific archipelago, and that some 

 species with ancestors originating on Pa- 

 cific islands took hold in Australia and 

 New Guinea at some time in the past. 



"Islands aren't just little landforms 

 worth saving as icons of evolutionary 

 quirkiness or symbols of past diversifi- 

 cation," Dr. Filardi said. "They are im- 

 portant in a broader sense and may con- 

 tribute significantly to the future 

 diversity of Hfe on Earth. 



Learn more about bird conservation in the 

 CBC's spring symposium, Conserving 

 Birds in Hi uman- Dominated Land- 

 scapes, on Thursday and Friday, April 27 

 and 28. Visit wwv/.3imnh.org for details. 



Kids and families enjoy the Museum's annual celebration of 

 African-American History Month. This year, over three Saturdays, 

 February n, i8, and 25, the Museum celebrates the past, present, 

 and future of black theater in the United States with a series en- 

 titled Ebony Stages that will include performances, discussions, 

 workshops, and more. 



The Museum's 17th annual Identification Day will be held on Sunday, 

 February 12, in honor of the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. As in 

 years past, the public is invited to bring their natural-history mysteries — 

 shells, rocks, insects, feathers, fossils, bones, pottery, textiles, or any other 

 natural or cultural objects that have left them puzzled and perplexed — to 

 the Museum, where scientists and experts will attempt to identify them. 



