Amazon-Endemic Golden-Crowned Manakin Evolved Through Interbreeding Between Species

A study by a research team at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada has found that the golden-crowned manakin, a yellow-headed species endemic to the Amazon rainforest, evolved through interbreeding between species.

According to the Neotropical Birds database of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the United States, there was no information about the golden-crowned manakin for more than 50 years after its discovery. This was because the golden-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix vilasboasi) was suspected to be a hybrid of the snow-capped manakin (Lepidothrix nattereri) and the opal-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix iris).

The weekly magazine Newsweek also reported that there were no records of the golden-crowned manakin between its discovery in 1957 and 2002.

While studying hybrid speciation and the secondary sexual ornaments of male birds inhabiting the Amazon, the University of Toronto team said in a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the golden-crowned manakin appears to be a hybrid that recently originated in Brazil's Amazon Basin.

The researchers explained, "Given its yellow crown, which distinguishes it from other birds in the manakin family, it is remarkable that the golden-crowned manakin is the offspring of two different species," adding, "During past periods of climate change, rivers acted as barriers and the rainforest contracted, causing allopatric speciation and allowing the golden-crowned manakin to arise as a hybrid."

Newsweek highlighted the golden-crowned manakin's uniqueness as the first bird known to have arisen through the interbreeding of two living parent species.

Jason Weir, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Toronto, said, "No hybrids have been reported to have evolved into an independent species in other areas where the parent species meet, so the golden-crowned manakin would never have arisen without geographic isolation."