Contrasting molecular and morphological evidence for the identification of an anomalous Buteo: a cautionary tale for hybrid diagnosis

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1 Unaffiliated, Harlingen, TX, United States
2 Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States
3 Animal Science, University of California, Davis, California, United States
4 Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, United States
5 Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, University of California, Davis, United States
6 Museum of Southwestern Biology and Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2039v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Molecular Biology, Taxonomy, Zoology
Keywords
Unusual plumage, DNA, phenology, morphology, hybrid, specimen
Copyright
© 2016 Clark et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Clark WS, Galen SC, Hull JM, Mayo MA, Engilis Jr A, Witt CC. 2016. Contrasting molecular and morphological evidence for the identification of an anomalous Buteo: a cautionary tale for hybrid diagnosis. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2039v1

Abstract

An adult Buteo was found dead as a road-kill south of Sacramento, California, and was thought to represent the first state record of the eastern Red-shouldered Hawk (B. lineatus lineatus; Pyle et al. 2004). It is now a specimen in the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology (WFB 4816) at the U. of California, Davis. We examined this specimen and found that many of its plumage characters differed from all other adult Red-shouldered Hawks examined, including nominate adults. Plumage markings and measurements were intermediate between Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis, ssp calurus) and Red-shouldered Hawk (ssp elegans), leading us to hypothesize that the bird was a hybrid. However, mtDNA sequences and nuDNA microsatellites proved definitively that the bird was a Red-shouldered Hawk, most likely of eastern origin. This case illustrates that apparent hybrids or apparent vagrants could be individuals with anomalous phenotypes caused by rare genetic variation or novel epigenetic effects.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for peer review.

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