Rapidly speciating lineages play an important role in generating biodiversity. Called as one of the “great speciators” by Ernst Mayr, the Zosterops White-eye clade of birds is one of the fastest speciating vertebrate lineages. However, in contrast to other fast evolving lineages like Darwin’s Finches and Anolis lizards, this clade covers a large geographic area that spans Africa, Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Although largely distributed, almost nothing is known about the reproductive barriers that prevent interbreeding between dispersing populations in this lineage. On Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Archipelago, two closely-related species of Zosterops have naturally established secondary contact. Using a combination of genomic sequencing, field experiments, and modeling, we are examining how reproductive barriers are maintained between these two Zosterops species on Kolombangara.
This project is Sarah Cowles’ dissertation research. |