The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography

M. Bunce; T. H. Worthy; M. J. Phillips; R. N. Holdaway; E. Willerslev; J. Haile; B. Shapiro; R. P. Scofield; A. Drummond; P. J. J. Kamp; A. Cooper

doi:10.1073/pnas.0906660106

Back

The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography

M. Bunce, T. H. Worthy, M. J. Phillips, R. N. Holdaway, E. Willerslev, J. Haile, B. Shapiro, R. P. Scofield, A. Drummond, P. J. J. Kamp, …

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol.106(49), pp.20646-20651

2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0906660106

Files and links (2)

pdf

extinct_ratite_moa.pdfDownload View

Published (Version of Record) Open Access

url

Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

The ratite moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) were a speciose group of massive graviportal avian herbivores that dominated the New Zealand (NZ) ecosystem until their extinction ≈600 years ago. The phylogeny and evolutionary history of this morphologically diverse order has remained controversial since their initial description in 1839. We synthesize mitochondrial phylogenetic information from 263 subfossil moa specimens from across NZ with morphological, ecological, and new geological data to create the first comprehensive phylogeny, taxonomy, and evolutionary timeframe for all of the species of an extinct order. We also present an important new geological/paleogeographical model of late Cenozoic NZ, which suggests that terrestrial biota on the North and South Island landmasses were isolated for most of the past 20-30 Ma. The data reveal that the patterns of genetic diversity within and between differentmoaclades reflect a complex history following a major marine transgression in the Oligocene, affected by marine barriers, tectonic activity, and glacial cycles. Surprisingly, the remarkable morphological radiation of moa appears to have occurred much more recently than previous early Miocene (ca. 15 Ma) estimates, and was coincident with the accelerated uplift of the Southern Alps just ca. 5-8.5 Ma. Together with recent fossil evidence, these data suggest that the recent evolutionary history of nearly all of the iconic NZ terrestrial biota occurred principally on just the South Island.

Details

Title: The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography
Authors/Creators: M. Bunce (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
T. H. Worthy (Author/Creator) - The University of Adelaide
M. J. Phillips (Author/Creator) - Australian National University
R. N. Holdaway (Author/Creator) - University of Canterbury
E. Willerslev (Author/Creator) - University of Copenhagen
J. Haile (Author/Creator) - University of Oxford
B. Shapiro (Author/Creator) - Pennsylvania State University
R. P. Scofield (Author/Creator) - Canterbury Museum
A. Drummond (Author/Creator) - University of Auckland
P. J. J. Kamp (Author/Creator) - University of Waikato
A. Cooper (Author/Creator) - The University of Adelaide
Publication Details: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol.106(49), pp.20646-20651
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Identifiers: 991005540200107891
Murdoch Affiliation: School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites

Metrics

438 File views/ downloads

311 Record Views

169 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology; 3.64 Phylogenetics & Genomics; 3.64.34 Phylogenetic Relationships
Web Of Science research areas: Evolutionary Biology
ESI research areas: Plant & Animal Science