Борнмутын их сургуулийн судлаачид 150 гаруй жилийн турш устаж үгүй болсон гэж үзэж байсан шувуу нь орчин үеийн нийтлэг тогорууны нэгэн төрөл болохыг генетикийн судалгаагаар нотлов.
XIX зуунд Францын өмнөд хэсгийн агуйнуудаас олдсон том хэмжээтэй тогорууны ясыг судлаачид “Grus primigenia” хэмээх тусдаа зүйлд хамаарах, мөстлөгийн үеийн устаж үгүй болсон шувуу гэж ангилж иржээ. Гэвч тус сургуулийн профессор Жон Стюартаар удирдуулсан баг Англи, Уэльс, Франц, Герман болон Балеарын арлуудаас олдсон 18 ясанд эртний ДНХ-ийн шинжилгээ хийсэн байна. Стокгольм дахь Палеогенетикийн төвтэй хамтран гүйцэтгэсэн уг судалгааны үр дүн “Royal Society Open Science” сэтгүүлд нийтлэгдсэн бөгөөд эдгээр яс нь өдгөө Европт амьдардаг нийтлэг тогорууных (Grus grus) болохыг тогтоожээ.
Эрдэмтдийн таамаглаж буйгаар, өмнө нь тогорууны ясны хэмжээ, хэлбэрт үндэслэн алдаатай ангилал хийж байсан нь эр, эм шувуудын биеийн хэмжээний ялгаатай холбоотой байж болзошгүй юм. Мөн мөстлөгийн үед амьдарч байсан тогоруунууд орчин үеийнхээсээ яагаад илүү том биетэй байсан нь тодорхойгүй хэвээр байгаа бөгөөд судлаачид үүнийг намгархаг газрын өөрчлөлт болон хүний газар ашиглалтын нөлөөтэй холбоотой байж магадгүй хэмээн таамаглаж байна.
Энэхүү олдвор нь өнгөрсөн хугацаанд устаж үгүй болсон гэж бүртгэгдсэн зарим шувуудын төрөл зүйл нь үнэндээ өнөөг хүртэл амьд байж болзошгүйг харуулж байна. Судлаачид эртний ДНХ-ийн технологи нь урьд өмнө бий болсон шинжлэх ухааны таамаглалуудыг нягтлах, амьд зүйлсийн хувьслыг илүү нарийвчлалтай тодорхойлох боломжийг олгож байгааг онцоллоо.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
For more than 150 years, scientists believed a giant crane had disappeared after the last Ice Age. But a new study from Bournemouth University tells a different story. The bird never actually went extinct. It was a larger version of the common crane (Grus grus), a species still found in Europe today.
The mystery began in the 19th century, when unusually large crane bones were discovered in caves in southern France. Their size led researchers to believe they belonged to a separate prehistoric species, later named Grus primigenia. That explanation stood for generations, largely because there was no genetic evidence to challenge it.
Now, ancient DNA has changed the picture. The discovery not only clears up a long-standing case of mistaken identity, but could other birds declared extinct thousands of years ago actually belong to species that are still alive?
A 150-year-old Mystery Finally Gets An Answer
The story starts with Alphonse Milne-Edwards, a French biologist who examined the oversized crane bones in the 19th century. Convinced they came from a bird different from the cranes living in Europe, he classified the fossils as a new species, Grus primigenia.
Because the remains dated to the end of the last Ice Age, the bird was believed to have disappeared thousands of years ago. To revisit that identification, a team led by Dr. John Stewart, Professor of Evolutionary Paleoecology at Bournemouth University, turned to ancient DNA.
The researchers examined 18 crane bones found across England, Wales, France, Germany, and the Balearic Islands. They worked with the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm to analyze the genetic material. The results, published by Royal Society Open Science, were clear: the bones belonged to common cranes, not a separate extinct species.
“Previous studies had merely used the size and shape of the bones to attempt to understand these large birds,” Stewart explained, according to Bournemouth University.
DNA provided something those earlier comparisons could not: a more accurate way to identify the birds.
Why Scientists Got These Giant Birds Wrong?
So how did a living species end up being mistaken for an extinct one? Part of the answer may lie in the size difference between male and female cranes. Male common cranes are generally larger than females, a characteristic that Stewart believes contributed to the original confusion.
“We suspected that these large cranes were not extinct and instead represented larger, modern European common cranes,” he said.
But the DNA results leave another question unanswered. Why were prehistoric common cranes so much bigger than some of their modern relatives? Researchers suspect the answer could be linked to changes in the birds’ environment, particularly the loss of wetland habitats and shifts in human land use.
According to Stewart, wetland drainage and changes in how people use the land are possible explanations for the reduction in crane size. There is still no confirmed answer and the team plans to investigate these possibilities further before drawing any firm conclusions.
Could More Supposedly Extinct Birds Still Be Around?
Many ancient birds were classified mainly by the size and shape of their fossilized bones. But as this research shows, a larger skeleton does not always mean a different species. That could mean some birds long considered extinct were simply bigger or smaller versions of species that still exist. As Stewart pointed out, the number of bird extinctions in the distant past may have been overestimated.
“While it is true that many species of birds are vulnerable to human actions today, it may be that we have overestimated the number of extinctions in the past,” he said. “Some of these may instead represent size changes to living species.”
The findings do not change the fact that many birds face threats from human activity today. They do, however, show how ancient DNA can challenge scientific assumptions that have stood for more than a century.
And in the case of Grus primigenia, the story has taken an unexpected turn. A giant bird once believed to have vanished with the Ice Age was never a lost species at all. Its smaller relatives are still living in Europe today.
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