You Are an Ornithologist in the Twenty-Second Century Studying a Tropical

Essay

You are an ornithologist in the twenty-second century studying a tropical bird species that has expanded its range from its original location in Central America to where it currently exists on either side of the Rocky Mountains in North America. This range expansion is a result of a warming climate dating back to the late twentieth century. As you conduct population censuses, you realize there are phenotypic differences between populations located on the eastern and western sides of the range. You hypothesize the species has become a "ring species" as a result of the geographic isolation established by the mountains. If it was truly a ring species, what would you expect to see when you analyze the DNA of the populations and compare them to one another?