Profile

Latin name?

Tyto alba (Taxonomy: Phylum Chordata / Sub Phylum Vertebrata / Class Aves / Order Strigiformes / Family Tytonidae / Genus Tyto)
UK population? (How many are in the UK?)

The most up-to-date figures for the UK Barn Owl population come from 32 monitoring schemes checking 6,058 nest sites. Between them, they recorded 1,558 active nests. This report shows that the number of nesting pairs in the UK in 2016 was 6% below the all-years average and the average number of young in the nest was 7% below. The full report can be found here: https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/State-of-the-UK-Barn-Owl-population-–-2016.pdf
Genome Size? (Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single genome)

The barn owl genome contains 46 pairs of chromosomes and its size is 1.6 Gigabases. A draft version of the genome has been reported by Gilbert, M, P and colleagues (GigaScience Database (2014): Genomic data of the Barn owl (Tyto alba); http://gigadb.org/dataset/101039), and was produced as part of the Avian Phylogenomics Project. DNA was collected from a female breed in the laboratory of Eric Knudsen at Stanford, USA, and the genome was sequenced to a depth of approximately 27X.
Most recent common ancestor to Homo Sapiens (presumed)

A reptile from 320 million years ago

I should be sequenced because...: The genome of the Barn Owl will help us discover how they hear so well and how they fly so silently.
About Me::

Tell me an owl joke! “What is a Barn Owl’s favourite subject at school? Owlgebra!”