Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes)

Abstract

Within Australia there are 19 endemic species of Anseriformes. Six of these belong to monotypic genera, some of which remain controversial with respect to phylogenetic relationships. Sequence variation in a 307base pair fragment of the cytochrome-b gene was compared from 23 species of waterfowl (the Cairina sequence was obtained from the literature) to elucidate further the relationships of these monotypic Australian genera. Anseranas and Dendrocygna were identified as the earliest diverged genera among the taxa examined. The remaining genera fell into two groups: (1) Tadorna, Alopochen, Chenonetta, Anas, Aythya, Cairina and Aix and (2) Cygnus, Branta, Cereopsis, Biziura, Oxyura, Malacorhynchus, Stictonetta and Nettapus. The controversial nature of the last group is discussed.

Miocene waterfowl and other birds from central Otago, New Zealand

“…Moreover, the coracoids of Malacorhynchus are very similar to those of Mionetta, especially in the presence of a distinct depression on the ventral surface of the blade (contra Livezey 1996b), also shared with Stictonetta. This indicates support for the primitive location of Malacorhynchus advocated by Sraml et al (1996). Livezey (1986) found Malacorhynchus to be a highly derived tadornine but in a more extensive analysis (Livezey 1996b) found its placement unresolved.…”

“…Sraml et al (1996) found that, based on a strict consensus tree of mitochondrial DNA data, Malacorhynchus was the sister taxa to Biziura and close to Dendrocygna. When we examined the skeletal characters of the humerus of both M. membranaceus and M. scarletti, we found that they both have all the diagnostic features of the Dendrocheninae as given in Livezey & Martin (1988) and as discussed herein, and differ in no appreciable way.…”

“…Pelvic elements, while specifically very diagnostic, tend to have morphologies dominated by functional adaptations. For example, the diving anatids Aythya, Mergus and Oxyura have grossly similar leg bones but are not considered to be very closely related (Donne-Goussé et al 2002;Sraml et al 1996). As humeri and coracoids dominate the St Bathans Fauna, while crania, sterna and pelves are only represented by fragments, we define anatid taxa on humeri with some comment on referred coracoids.…”

“…While Stictonetta is generally regarded as relatively primitive, both Hymenolaimus and Chenonetta are variably placed within or outside of anatines but are often allied to tadornines (Johnsgard 1968;Marchant & Higgins 1990;Sraml et al 1996;Livezey 1997b;Donne-Goussé et al 2002;Worthy & Olson 2002). Certainly, the proximal position of the ectepicondylar prominence in Matanas and Chenonetta is seen in Tadorna, but no other compared taxa.…”

A Genetic and Cytogenetic Map for the Duck (Anas platyrhynchos)

“…Ducks, together with the ostrich, emu, peacock, turkey, quail, and other birds, play a major role in studies of bird evolution. Up to now, most available molecular data concerning ducks have come from evolutionary studies based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence (Cooper et al 1996;Liu et al 1996;Sraml et al 1996;Sorenson 1998, 1999;Donne-Gousse et al 2002). However, information about genetic markers in the duck is limited (Buchholz et al 1998;Maak et al 2000Maak et al , 2003Paulus and Tiedemann 2003;Stai and Hughes 2003;Huang et al 2005).…”