Caribbean islands hosted early barn owl diversity
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Min Zhao and colleagues at the Florida Museum of Natural History determined that barn owls first diversified in the Caribbean, not continental America.
For years, scientists believed barn owls arrived in the Americas from Europe or Asia, but genetic analysis of owl specimens from eleven museums revealed the most distinct barn owl lineages are in the Caribbean.
This suggests barn owls travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from Eurasia to the Caribbean, possibly during the Pleistocene ice ages, before moving to the Americas and eventually to the Galápagos Islands. Researchers sequenced DNA from owl samples collected as far back as 1876 and combined this data with fossil records to trace the birds’ movements. They found the American barn owl, Tyto furcata, originated in the Caribbean less than 2 million years ago.
The study also showed that several giant barn owl species once thrived in the region, preying on large rodents and ground sloths, but likely went extinct after humans arrived and depleted their food sources. Today, the Caribbean still holds a significant amount of barn owl diversity, although much less than in the past.
Scientists now recognize several distinct barn owl species, including a unique lineage in the Galápagos, and believe further research could reveal even more, bolstering conservation efforts for these birds.
