Saturday, February 25, 2012

Cool Hybrid (not the car)

Here is a really interesting photo from Nemesis Bird of a Common Goldeneye / Hooded Merganser Hybrid.


I find it amazing that two ducks that appear so different could hybridize, (the Goldeneye is in genus Bucephala while the Merganser is in genus Lophodytes).  This is a good example of why scientists can't simply use interbreeding as a determination of whether or not a species should be merged.  On some occasions, animals of distinct species can successfully interbreed (and in some cases do so frequently enough that they form a new species, like the Brewster's and Lawrence's Warblers, which are both Hybrids of the Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers).


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