Cosmos Magazine: UC biologists on Galapagos finches and genetic diversity
Published research on genetic diversity getting international attention
UC graduate Heather Farrington and UC biologists Kenneth Petren and Lucinda Lawson found that genetic diversity was not a good predictor of whether populations of finches would survive.
Their work was recently featured in Cosmos Magazine.
The study was published in the journal Conservation Genetics in August. A UC lab analysis of century-old museum specimens found that six of eight extinct populations had more genetic diversity than similar museum specimens from which descendants survive today. In most other species, low genetic diversity is a signal of a population in decline.
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