Tasidyptes hunteri (1 Viewer)

Cole, T.L., Waters, J.M., Shepherd, L., Rawlence, N.J., Joseph, L., and Wood, J.R. Ancient DNA resolves the identity of the ‘extinct’ Hunter Island penguin (Tasidyptes hunteri). To be submitted to MPE.

Tasidyptes hunteri Tets et O’Conner, 1983. Is an Penguin found on Hunter Island, known from a pelvis in three parts and a left tarsometatarsus. Some material was refered to it: a juvenil synsacrum and a left coracoid.
The species is named after John Hunter who at the end of the 18th century made bird drawings after his career as a sailor and explorer and became Gouvenor of New South Wales. The species went extinct possibly between 760 and 200 years ago by overhunting by Tasmanian Arborigines, that were exterpated by European colonists 75 years later.

The bones of this species were found in different layers of a kitchen midden and it is not sure they all belong to the same species.

Enjoy,

Fred

Would be interesting to know whether Tasidyptes hunteri is a valid species or not.

Melanie said:

Would be interesting to know whether Tasidyptes hunteri is a valid species or not.

Click to expand...

That would be interesting, perhaps the paper mentioned by Peter will clear the status up. But at the moment I still consider it valid, untill the contrary is prooved, allthough I wouldn't be very surprised if it turns out to be a chimera.

Fred

Theresa L Cole, Jonathan M Waters, Lara D Shepherd, Nicolas J Rawlence, Leo Joseph & Jamie R Wood , 2017

Ancient DNA reveals that the ‘extinct’ Hunter Island penguin (Tasidyptes hunteri) is not a distinct taxon

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlx043, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx043

Published: 09 August 2017

Abstract:

https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean...extinct-Hunter-Island?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Abstract


The penguin species Tasidyptes hunteri van Tets & O’Connor, 1983, the sole representative of an extinct penguin genus, was described on the basis of four bones excavated from a prehistoric midden on Tasmania’s Hunter Island. Several authors have since questioned the validity of T. hunteri, citing the fragmentary nature of the remains and the similarity of some elements (coracoid and tarsometatarsus) to those of extant crested penguin (Eudyptes) species. We designed four overlapping primer pairs to amplify a 499 bp region of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COI) in penguins and used these to amplify and sequence COI from all known bones attributed to T. hunteri. The T. hunteri COI sequences were assessed within a phylogenetic framework against COI sequences for all extant penguin species. Our results reveal that the T. hunteri bones are an assemblage of remains from three extant penguin species (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, E. robustus, Eudyptula novaehollandiae), and we find no molecular support for any of these bones representing an extinct penguin lineage.

Enjoy,

Fred

There are taxonomic consequences:

Tasidyptes hunteri van Tets et O'Connor, 1983. becomes a synonym of Eudyptes pachyrhynchus G. R. Gray, 1845.

Fred