Tale of the lava heron: SFSU student describes new Galapagos species
A longstanding SFSU-Cal Academy partnership enables high-caliber SFSU student research
The Galapagos Islands are famous for the discoveries that shaped Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Now an SFSU graduate has added one more: Ezra Mendales (M.S., ’23) describes a new species as part of his master’s thesis.
“I feel super lucky with this project. I think we fell into this beautiful story that is really rare,” Mendales said of his work with SFSU Associate Professor Jaime Chaves and California Academy of Sciences Ornithology Curator Jack Dumbacher.
They found that the common Galapagos lava heron (Butorides sundevalli) is a distinct species, upending a decades-long assumption that it is a subspecies of the South American straited heron.
“I’d say the vast majority of ornithologists alive today have never been part of a new species description,” said Dumbacher, who shares a lab with Chaves and was on Mendales’ thesis committee.
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