Chendytes and Camptorhynchus (1 Viewer)

Janet C. Buckner, Ryan Ellingson, David A. Gold, Terry L. Jones, David K. Jacobs. Mitogenomics supports an unexpected taxonomic relationship for the extinct diving duck Chendytes lawi and definitively places the extinct Labrador Duck. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 13 December 2017.

Abstract:

Chendytes lawi, an extinct flightless diving anseriform from coastal California, was traditionally classified as a sea duck, tribe Mergini, based on similarities in osteological characters. We recover and analyze mitochondrial genomes of C. lawi and five additional Mergini species, including the extinct Labrador Duck, Camptorhyncus labradorius. Despite its diving morphology, C. lawi is reconstructed as an ancient relictual lineage basal to the dabbling ducks (tribe Anatini), revealing an additional example of convergent evolution of characters related to feeding behavior among ducks. The Labrador Duck is sister to Steller’s Eider which may provide insights into the evolution and ecology of this poorly known extinct species. Our results demonstrate that inclusion of full length mitogenomes, from taxonomically distributed ancient and modern sources can improve phylogeny reconstruction of groups previously assessed with shorter single-gene mitochondrial sequences.

The genus Chendytes was described by Loye Holmes Miller, the famous Californian paleornithologist in 1925. The typespecies was Chendytes lawi L. H. Miller, 1925. The species is found in California from Pleistocene to Subrecent deposits.

A second species was described by the non less famous Californian paleornithologist Hildegard Howard in 1955. She named the species after Loye Holmes Miller: Chendytes milleri Howard, 1955 which came from the Early Pleistocene of California

Refs:
Hildegarde Howard, 1955
New Records and a New Species of Chendytes, an Extinct Genus of Diving Geese
The Condor 57: 135-143

Loye Holmes Miller, 1925
Chendytes, a Diving Goose from the California Pleistocene
The Condor 27: 145-147

Enjoy,

Fred