New study shows bird color variations speed up evolution

[Staff]

New study shows bird color variations speed up evolution
Public release date: 9-May-2012
EurekaAlert

Contact: Nerissa Hannink

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/uom-nss050912.php
excerpt from above:

Researchers have found that bird species with multiple plumage colour forms within in the same population, evolve into new species faster than those with only one colour form, confirming a 60 year-old evolution theory.

The global study used information from birdwatchers and geneticists accumulated over decades and was conducted by University of Melbourne scientists Dr Devi Stuart-Fox and Dr Andrew Hugall (now based at the Melbourne Museum) and is published in the journal Nature.

The link between having more than one colour variation (colour polymorphism) like the iconic red, black or yellow headed Gouldian finches, and the faster evolution of new species was predicted in the 1950s by…