Adzebills (1 Viewer)

Alexander P. Boast, Brendan Chapman, Michael B. Herrera, Trevor H. Worthy, R. Paul Scofield, Alan J. D. Tennyson, Peter Houde, Michael Bunce, Alan Cooper and Kieren J. Mitchell (2019)

Mitochondrial Genomes from New Zealand’s Extinct Adzebills (Aves: Aptornithidae: Aptornis) Support a Sister-Taxon Relationship with the Afro-Madagascan Sarothruridae

Diversity 2019, 11(2): 24

doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/d11020024

Free pdf: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/11/2/24

Enjoy,

Fred

Fred Ruhe said:

Alexander P. Boast, Brendan Chapman, Michael B. Herrera, Trevor H. Worthy, R. Paul Scofield, Alan J. D. Tennyson, Peter Houde, Michael Bunce, Alan Cooper and Kieren J. Mitchell (2019)

Mitochondrial Genomes from New Zealand’s Extinct Adzebills (Aves: Aptornithidae: Aptornis) Support a Sister-Taxon Relationship with the Afro-Madagascan Sarothruridae

Diversity 2019, 11(2): 24

doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/d11020024

Free pdf: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/11/2/24

Enjoy,

Fred

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Very interesting. Thanks for posting Fred. :t:

Abstract

The recently extinct New Zealand adzebills (Aptornithidae, Aptornis spp.) were an enigmatic group of large flightless birds that have long eluded precise taxonomic assignment as they do not closely resemble any extant birds. Adzebills were nearly wingless, weighed approximately 16–19 kg, and possessed massive adze-like reinforced bills whose function remains unknown. Using hybridisation enrichment and high-throughput sequencing of DNA extracted from subfossil bone and eggshell, near-complete mitochondrial genomes were successfully assembled from the two Quaternary adzebill species: the North Island Adzebill (Aptornis otidiformis) and South Island Adzebill (A. defossor). Molecular phylogenetic analyses confirm that adzebills are members of the Ralloidea (rails and allies) and are sister-taxon to the Sarothruridae, which our results suggest comprises the Madagascan wood rails (Mentocrex, two likely sp.) in addition to the tiny (<50 gram) rail-like Afro-Madagascan flufftails (Sarothrura, 9 spp.). Node age estimates indicate that the split between adzebills and Sarothruridae occurred ~39.6 Ma, suggesting that the ancestors of the adzebills arrived in New Zealand by long-distance dispersal rather than continental vicariance. This newly identified biogeographic link between physically distant New Zealand and Afro-Madagascar, echoed by the relationship between the New Zealand kiwi (Apterygiformes) and Madagascan elephant-birds (Aepyornithiformes), suggests that the adzebill’s near relatives were formerly more widespread. In addition, our estimate for the divergence time between the two Quaternary adzebill species (0.2–2.3 Ma) coincides with the emergence of a land-bridge between the North and South islands of New Zealand (ca. 1.5–2 Ma). This relatively recent divergence suggests that North Island adzebills are the result of a relatively recent dispersal from the South Island, from which the earliest (Miocene) adzebill fossil has been described.

Fred

Say what?? Also, interesting Canirallus seems to be part of Rallidae after all, well away from Mentocrex.

gusasp said:

Also, interesting Canirallus seems to be part of Rallidae after all, well away from Mentocrex.

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Which was first:
- https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26291359 ("Jun 12, 1894" according to the back side of the volume's title page https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26291262 ), or
- https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8378659 ("apparent date" suggested by Zimmer 1926 https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36194742: "Pref. dated Febr. 28, 1894; rev. Ibis, July 1894. ")...?

Here is information on the St Bathans adzebill

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/st-bathans-adzebill
https://www.researchgate.net/public...nt_gruiform_Aves_Aptornithidae_in_New_Zealand


Aptornis proasciarostratus sp. nov. (described in 2011)

Melanie said:

Here is information on the St Bathans adzebill

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/st-bathans-adzebill
https://www.researchgate.net/public...nt_gruiform_Aves_Aptornithidae_in_New_Zealand


Aptornis proasciarostratus sp. nov. (described in 2011)

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Some details:

Trevor H. Worthy • Alan J. D. Tennyson • R. Paul Scofield, 2011

Fossils reveal an early Miocene presence of the aberrant gruiform
Aves: Aptornithidae in New Zealand

Journal of Ornithology July 2011, Volume 152, Issue 3, pp 669–680

Abstract:

A member of the New Zealand endemic family (Aves: Aptornithidae) is described from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand. The new species, based on two thoracic vertebrae, is provisionally referred to the highly distinctive Late Pleistocene–Holocene extinct genus Aptornis Mantell, 1848 (in Quart J Geol Soc Lond 4:225–238, 1848). It differs from both Recent species by slightly smaller size, greater pneumaticity of the corpus vertebrae and differences of the processus spinosus and processus transversi. We refer a distal femur, another vertebral fragment, a phalange and tentatively a tibial fragment, also from the St Bathans Fauna, to this new taxon.

Systematic palaeontology

Family Aptornithidae Bonaparte, 1856
Genus Aptornis Mantell, 1848
?Aptornis proasciarostratus sp. nov.

Holotype: NMNZ S.52350, vertebra 16, collected 11 February 2009 by the University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia/CM /NMNZ expedition.

Etymology: From pro, before, ascia, Latin for adze, and rostratus, Latin adjective for beaked, in deference to the common name adzebill, derived from Parker’s (1866) referral to this bird as the ‘adze-headed bird’.

Type locality: Bed HH1a, Manuherikia River, Otago.

Stratigraphy/age/fauna: Manuherikia Group, Early Miocene (Altonian); 19–16 Ma; St Bathans Fauna.

Paratype: NMNZ S.52353, vertebra 19, lacking proc. transversus and proc. spinosus, collected 2 March 2010 from bed HH1b, Trench Excavation, Manuherikia River, Otago.

Referred specimens: NMNZ S.50961, a poorly preserved centrum of a dorsal vertebra from the HH1b Trench; OU22647, distal right femur, collected in the Manuherikia River Section just above Bed HH1b near the river bank (approx. 9.50–9.58 m above the base of Bannockburn Formation), by Alexander Fergus in March 2005; NMNZ S.42623 phalanx right IV.1 (Worthy et al. 2007), and a tibiotarsal fragment NMNZ S.50191, from the HH1b Trench, both of appropriate size and shape for this new taxon.

Fred