![]() “But we won’t know unless we try, and results from other similar studies on museum specimens have shown promising results.” “It’s a huge effort, involving an international team of collaborators, and we do not yet know if we will be able to get DNA from the specimen Darwin collected,” Edwards said. Edwards and her team will use genetic data gathered from samples collected by Galapagos National Park and many international collaborators, along with specimens from museums, to assess population size changes in racer populations and see if populations are in decline, or stable, informing future conservation management efforts by the Galapagos National Park. "We will also use this dataset to understand the extent of species diversity across the archipelago with the most extensive sampling to date."Īnecdotally, racer snakes have fallen prey to cats and other invasive species across the islands. We can then use the closest genetic relative to repopulate Floreana Island with this key predator,” Edwards said. ![]() To do this, we will sequence Darwin's specimen to understand the identity of the specimen relative to the populations present on other islands. “We want to effect ecosystem restoration on Floreana Island by finding an evolutionary replacement in the ecosystem for that species. Edwards recently got a 2020–21 Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science Grant through the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to study Galapagos snakes. Now, UC Merced’s evolutionary biology and conservation genetics Professor Danielle Edwards and her research group are the first scientists to propose genetically sequencing Darwin’s original Galapagos racer sample. The species disappeared from Floreana but can still be found on two satellite islands. That sample, now at the Natural History Museum in London, was the basis for describing a new species, the Galapagos (Floreana) racer. It has been 186 years since Charles Darwin collected the samples of the Galapagos Islands species that led to his explanation of how the diversity of life on Earth has evolved and forever changed the way we understand the world.ĭuring his five-week stay on the islands, Darwin collected dozens of samples, including one small, light brownish-grey snake on Floreana Island.
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