Full circumpolar migration ensures evolutionary unity in the Emperor penguin
Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 06:31
in Biology & Nature
No colony is an island or a remote patch on sea ice on the coast of Antarctica. Emperor penguins move all around the frozen continent making one single interbreeding population for the whole species. A single circumpolar population! Even though fidelity for the natal site is calling most of the individuals back to mate and rear their chicks in the colony they were born, a constant dispersal every generation is producing the fully admixed genetic pattern found by Cristofari and co-authors and published in prestigious journal Nature Communications this week.