Lead
In 2017, scientists spotted a strange species of monkey in Borneo with the face and body of a proboscis monkey, as well as the lower body of a silver langur, causing scientists to be very surprised by this bizarre hybrid monkey.
In past academic reports, scholars have believed that the genome is the key factor for the stability of biological populations, and the reproductive isolation mechanism is one of the key factors.
In 2019, Julie · Coleman and her research team first unveiled the genome of the hybrid monkey and documented the discovery.
This is the first cross-species hybridization phenomenon of monkeys discovered in nature.
This year, the team published a paper in the journal PloS Biology updating the finding and conducting genomic analysis of the bizarre hybrid monkey.
Bizarre mating of 8.7 million creatures.
Scientists believe that there are about 8.7 million species on Earth, of which only 953434 have been described by zommon experts so far.
As a result, less than 11% of known animals have found their identity.
This provides a great opportunity to take a fresh look at the biodiversity known to humanity and to re-examine the reality of the approximately 8.7 million living species on the planet.
In 2018, Coleman's team first described the results of this unusual hybrid between a proboscis monkey and a silver langur.
In 2017, during field research in the Bahamas Nature Reserve, they encountered a strange monkey.
Aside from a very small sample, there was no overlap in the genome between this monkey and other known monkeys, apparently with different parents' genomes.
Studies have shown that the monkey is called L1036, with a proboscis mother and a silver langur father.
Although the parents were not of the same species, the parents of L1036 successfully achieved cross-species breeding.
Prior to this, the scientific community had long believed that such mating between monkeys could not have been possible.
In the monkey's genome, scientists have found four sets of genomes from their parents.
In addition to the two sets of genomes from the parents, there are two sperm and eggs that each have one set of genomes.
These genomes are called haploids and are all unique.
Scientists believe that the two haploids of the parental genome are derived from interactions during fertility, while the two haploids from the parents are the result of previous mating.
This suggests that the parents had also had cross-species mating before.
One of the paper's authors, biologist Carl · Gubier from the National University of Singapore, said: "Genome exchange between proboscis monkeys and silver langurs is still rare, and I think this is one of the biggest takeaways for the research team."
A survey conducted by Coleman in 2022 found that the hybrid monkey L1036, discovered in 2017, was not the only one.
Between 2011 and 2015, Coleman's team found 36 baby monkeys like L1036 among 843 photographs of proboscis monkeys taken in the Bahamas Nature Reserve.
Of these baby monkeys, 38% are hybrids of proboscis monkeys and silver langurs.
The emergence of hybrid monkeys.
The new study analyzes the monkey genome for the first time and finds that this atypical genome assemblage, as well as mating between different species that occurs less frequently in the monkey lineage, may no longer be uncommon in the future.
In 2013, the total number of proboscis monkeys and silver langurs was about 254.
In the 90s of the 20th century, these statistics also needed to be updated, because about 30 years ago, the population relationship between the proboscis monkey and the silver langur was intact.
However, in 1998, local deforestation accelerated, forcing habitat separation between proboscis monkeys and silver langurs.
As forests are gradually cleared for farmland, grasslands and other human settlements, the monkeys are forced to live in the Bahamas Nature Reserve, where wildlife habitat once made up between 74 and 85 per cent of the area, and in 2017 only between 49 and 54 per cent remained.
Population density and habitat reduction have forced close habitat contact between proboscis monkeys and silver langurs.
Due to habitat reduction, scarcity of food resources, and the impact of human activities, the lifestyles between the two species have become more similar.
In order to make a living, the two species gradually adapted to each other's diets.
In the past, proboscis monkeys tended not to have much contact with silver langurs due to different lifestyles and significantly different diets.
Now, due to the scarcity of food, they are gradually getting used to each other and gradually starting to mate.
Gubier believes that the appearance of the hybrid monkey L1036 is not a surprising result.
This kind of hybridization is not uncommon in other animal species, especially between those with overlapping habitats.
However, L1036 may not be the "last hybrid monkey", and in the Bahamas Nature Reserve, L1036's parents may be the only hybrid pair.
Gubier speculated that other hybrids may have never been recorded, or that the data they carried when mating with other species may still not have been collected.
The Creation of Humanity?
The emergence of hybrid monkey L1036 challenges the conventional understanding of reproductive isolation in biology.
Reproductive isolation refers to the process of independent evolution between species, preventing gene exchange between different species.
If the two species are independent and have enough genetic differences to cause genomic changes, the offspring they will have when mating will be "stillborn".
This phenomenon is not common in humans because we belong to the species of Homo sapiens.
But it is very common in mating between species.
If there is little genetic difference between the different species, the offspring they produce when mating may be viable, but such offspring are often not reproductive.
For example, between 1936 and 1963, Soviet scientists bred a new plant called the "tomato potato" through genome exchange cross-breeding between different kinds of potatoes and tomatoes.
However, the reproduction capacity of this hybrid species was poor, and they disappeared in the 90s of the 20th century.
In the case of a proboscis monkey and a silver langur mating, L1036 has survivability.
"If the parents mate again, the genetic differences between the different species may still be relatively small, leading to the viability of the offspring," Gubir said.
The parents did not "finally" mate.
In August 2018, Coleman's team documented the discovery by photographing the mating of proboscis monkeys and silver langurs in the Bahamas Nature Reserve.
"It's quite possible that the parents could mate again," Gubil said.
L1036 may not be too surprising if it becomes a family member, as the viability of hybrid offspring is common in most species.
There is no significant reduction in reproductive capacity between different species, especially between hybrid species. ”
Gubir speculates that the proboscis monkey and the silver langur will soon produce hybrid offspring again.
Although not particularly directly related to human activity, scientists have long been convinced that the cause of this is human activity and ecological destruction.
There are studies that show that habitat loss and climate change will increase contact between different species and increase the likelihood of mating.
"It is reasonable to assume that the geographic distribution and habitat of a variety of wildlife will change under the effects of climate change and habitat destruction, promoting mating behaviour between different species," Coleman said.
epilogue
Human activities have an impact on the future reproduction of living things.
Whether or not to take these factors into account remains one of the questions that we need to reveal in biodiversity research.
As Gubir puts it: "Climate change will cause habitat loss."
This will affect the distribution of the species.
Climate change could lead to more frequent encounters between different species, prompting them to mate in each other's habitats and potentially leading to a variety of other atypical hybrid species in the future. ”
These unexpected mating behaviors are very common in many different species, and it is likely that this is one of the reasons that led to the formation of new species in the evolutionary process of a particular animal species.
As scientists monitor these polluted ecosystems more, we may have more news of unexpected cross-species hybrids.
We can think of the mating of these unusual creatures as a consequence of human beings on nature.
After these, we need to think about how to avoid more of these consequences and re-examine the balance between human activities and ecological conservation.