# Barn owl DNA from museum specimens traces Western Hemisphere lineage to the Caribbean

- Published: 2026-11-15 04:46 UTC
- Section: Life & Health › Biology & biochemistry
- Tags: barn owl DNA, Tyto phylogeny, Caribbean owls, Galápagos barn owl, museum specimens DNA, ultraconserved elements, mitogenomes, island extinctions, Tyto punctatissima
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-8ab6ab26fef9a0d4eeb220a8_barn_owl_dna/

**Researchers sequenced DNA of 42 owls from museum specimens and found the oldest lineages of American barn owls on Caribbean islands, where most giant relatives are now extinct.**

![Barn owl DNA from museum specimens traces Western Hemisphere lineage to the Caribbean](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/f5286989a5acc2ef.jpg)
*Earth.com*

A team led by Min Zhao at the Florida Museum of Natural History reconstructed the family tree of barn and bay owls (Tytonidae), focusing on the Western Hemisphere. The results were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences [1]. The authors used ultraconserved elements and mitogenomes extracted from tissues, historical museum specimens and fossils [1]. The main analysis covered 42 owls, and a separate mitochondrial analysis covered 68.

Most of the DNA came from toe pads of museum specimens collected between 1876 and 1995 in 11 museums, plus a few ribs and fresh tissues. Fossil bones from the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica were also included, although radiocarbon dating showed that none was older than about 220 years. The samples covered all 11 recognized subspecies of the American barn owl and 15 of the 18 living barn owl species worldwide.

## Caribbean origin of the lineage

The results support an Eastern origin for Western Hemisphere Tyto [1]. The Caribbean was, and still is, the centre of Tyto diversity in the Western Hemisphere, although nearly all Caribbean Tyto and their mammalian prey are now extinct [1]. According to a molecular clock anchored by fossils, the Western Hemisphere owls split from their Old World relatives about 5 million years ago (plausible range 3.75 to 6.5 million), and all later branching occurred within the past 2.6 million years.

Owls of Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands form their own old branch, as do owls of the Lesser Antilles. Continental owls differ little from one another. The reconstruction points to the Greater Antilles as the most likely first foothold, followed by the Lesser Antilles, probably South America and then North America. Two darker Lesser Antilles subspecies proved to be distinct lineages rather than each other's closest relatives, based on the data available so far.

## Galápagos and extinct giants

The authors identified two independent colonization events of the Galápagos [1]. An owl from Santa Cruz carries the earliest-diverging lineage of the American barn owl, while an owl from San Cristóbal belongs to the South American group. The authors propose treating the Santa Cruz lineage as a separate species, Tyto punctatissima, which has already disappeared from Floreana Island since people settled there in the 1800s.

DNA could not be recovered from five bones of the Hispaniolan giant barn owl or three bones of the Bahamian Tyto pollens, which stood roughly 1 metre tall. It therefore remains open whether the giants came from the same crossing or a separate one. People reached the islands at least 6,000 years ago, hunted the owls' prey and brought in new animals, and the specialist owls disappeared along with their food. The authors conclude that islands can serve as sources of diversity for some continental lineages and as museums of diversity [1].

## Sources

1. [Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.1022)
2. [Earth.com](https://www.earth.com/animals/how-did-barn-owls-reach-the-americas-dna-offers-an-unexpected-answer)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-8ab6ab26fef9a0d4eeb220a8_barn_owl_dna/