O Carrillo P. F.

de Souza M.

Nguyen P.

Vinguel P.

et al. A new species from the Galapagos: the Auchenorhynchus kasneri. Science. 343 : 1409-1412

In this study, we focus on six Galapagos islands: Arguim Island, Galapagos National Park, Galapagos Island, San Cristobal Archipelago, San Cristobal Basin, and San Sebastian Archipelago. The six islands are designated in 1986 from the former names of the islands: Arguim (an old-fashioned Greek abbreviation of “Argu-im”), Galapagos, and Galapagos Peninsula. Arguim Island, which is composed of an archipelago adjacent to the mainland and the mainland (it was named Arguim in honor of an ancient Greek poet, who believed that Arguim Island was the only uninhabited part of the world), has an arid climate, is relatively low in population, and is the only island that is inhabited mostly by small and rare birds. Three of the six islands — San Sebastian Archipelago, and San Cristobal Archipelago — have strong and sustained human populations; the other two islands — San Cristobal Basin and San Sebastian Archipelago — are characterized by a low population due to the remoteness of the ecosystem and isolation of the communities.

We analyzed a total of 13,739 genetic markers (Table S2 ) across all the islands and populations. This data, together with the geographic information system (GIS), is the most comprehensive and complete information of any genome of Galapagos birds (and any bird). Genetic markers were sequenced for all the islands and populations separately using Illumina and the MEGA software package on the Illumina platform. For two islands (San Sebastián and Arguim Island), where there is extensive genetic data (see above), the birds were sequenced on the molecular sampling program FLIRT5, and for all other islands, the birds were sequenced by sequencing the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of a female chick. We used only the individuals sequenced for the individual islands, all of which were birds that roosted separately and were not part of any other population group at the time of sequencing. The phylogenetic and demographic structure of the genomes of the five islands is