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VANCOUVER (CP) -- A species of songbirds can gradually evolve into two that have distinct songs and colour variations without ever interbreeding, says a University of British Columbia biologist whose work would make Darwin swoon.

Darren Irwin used a new genetic analysis technique to show that the greenish warbler native to forests in Asia changes characteristics as its population spreads across the Tibetan Plateau. Eventually, it becomes another species altogether.

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His decade-long study of the greenish warbler shows what 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin could only have imagined.

"He'd probably say it's some of the most convincing evidence that evolution happens, showing the continuity between two species, that you can have small changes that lead from one species to another," Irwin said.

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[ 21 January 2005: Message edited by: Anchoress ]

It was the finches of the Galapagos, which had evolved into separate species on separate islands that was the defintive evidence for him.

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"No one's ever shown such a nice, gradual change between two clearly separate species before," said Irwin, associate professor in UBC's zoology department.

Irwin used blood samples of the greenish warbler collected from several countries including Nepal, India, China and Pakistan to show that genetic characteristics of the songbirds changed across west to east Siberia.

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Through genetic selection alone, our research group has created a population of tame foxes fundamentally different in temperament and behavior from their wild forebears. In the process we have observed some striking changes in physiology, morphology and behavior, which mirror the changes known in other domestic animals and bear out many of Belyaev's ideas.

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