How the world's fastest muscle created four unique bird species

How the world's fastest muscle created four unique bird species

6 years ago
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https://phys.org/news/2018-10-world-fastest-muscle-unique-bird.html

Fuxjager's new study, "Physiological constraint on acrobatic courtship behavior underlies rapid sympatric speciation in bearded manakins," is funded by the National Science Foundation. The research team includes Wake Forest doctoral student Meredith Miles.

Fuxjager, assistant professor of biology at Wake Forest and the study's principal investigator, looks at how the manakins shared a common ancestor 300,000 years ago, but then quickly split into four species: white-bearded manakins to golden-collared manakins, and then to white-collared and orange-collared manakins. The core goal of all his research is to understand how and why animals produce remarkable behaviors.