Birds like the n\u0113n\u0113, \u02bbi\u02bbiwi and manu-o-K\u016b are already familiar across the Hawaiian islands \u2014 but have you ever heard of the L\u0101na\u02bbi hookbill?<\/p>\n
Only one specimen of the now-extinct honeycreeper remains in a museum collection, and for over a century it has puzzled scientists.<\/p>\n
The remnants of the bird\u2019s DNA was thought to be too degraded to salvage, but using new techniques in what\u2019s known as \u201cancient DNA,\u201d scientists at the Smithsonian have finally cracked the code to the L\u0101na\u02bbi hookbill.<\/a><\/p>\n The discovery can tell us more about how Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s honeycreepers evolved and can help unlock the full potential of what the collections in these museums .<\/p>\n To learn more, HPR spoke with Smithsonian scientists Rob Fleischer and Michael Campana. Fleischer is the head of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics<\/a> while Campana specializes in analysis of animal and pathogen genomics.<\/p>\n According to Campana, \u201cancient DNA\u201d defines any DNA sample that has been degraded. It\u2019s a broad definition, as \u201cthe samples can range from pretty recent, almost forensic-like stuff \u2026 to samples like woolly mammoths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Since the only extant L\u0101na\u02bbi hookbill specimen<\/a> is housed in the Bishop Museum, it has been subject to tropical temperatures that left it too degraded to study \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s infamously one of the \u2026 strangest, most specimens known,\u201d Campana told HPR. \u201cNow that DNA technology has progressed so much, we were able to do a whole genome on this one specimen.\u201d<\/p>\n From their study, they were able to find evidence of the L\u0101na\u02bbi hookbill hybridizing with other bird species on Hawai\u02bbi and confirm information about the specimen that was previously unknown.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was exciting because not only were we able to do a whole genome on this tiny little thing, we were able to confirm that it was a female. We were able to reconstruct its sex chromosomes,\u201d Campana said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re still working on that, to try to fill those gaps in, but it’s just unique. It’s the remnant of something that was there, and that’s not there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The discovery is significant because it not only reveals new information about Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s extinct bird specimens \u2014 it also reveals the value of the museum collections they belong to. \u201cThey have one of the best collections of Hawaiian birds in the world, and we felt bad not involving them as much as we wanted to,\u201d Fleischer said about the Bishop Museum\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n \u201cThese things are not \u2014 you can’t make them again. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, and they’re super valuable, not just for phylogenetics, but conservation efforts,\u201d Campana said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll sorts of different research projects cannot be done without museum specimens.\u201d<\/p>\n More information about the research on the L\u0101na\u02bbi hookbill can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n