Sorenson M D, Cooper A, Paxinos E E, Quinn T W, James H F, Olson S L, Fleischer R C
Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20008, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 1999 Nov 7;266(1434):2187-93. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1999.0907.
The extinct moa-nalos were very large, flightless waterfowl from the Hawaiian islands. We extracted, amplified and sequenced mitochondrial DNA from fossil moa-nalo bones to determine their systematic relationships and lend insight into their biogeographical history. The closest living relatives of these massive, goose-like birds are the familiar dabbling ducks (tribe Anatini). Moa-nalos, however, are not closely related to any one extant species, but represent an ancient lineage that colonized the Hawaiian islands and evolved flightlessness long before the emergence of the youngest island, Hawaii, from which they are absent. Ancient DNA yields a novel hypothesis for the relationships of these bizarre birds, whereas the evidence of phylogeny in morphological characters was obscured by the evolutionary transformation of a small, volant duck into a giant, terrestrial herbivore.
已灭绝的莫阿纳洛是来自夏威夷群岛的大型不会飞的水鸟。我们从莫阿纳洛化石骨骼中提取、扩增并测序了线粒体DNA，以确定它们的系统关系，并深入了解它们的生物地理历史。这些体型巨大、类似鹅的鸟类现存的近亲是常见的河鸭（河鸭族）。然而，莫阿纳洛与任何现存物种都没有密切关系，而是代表了一个古老的谱系，它们在夏威夷群岛殖民，并在最年轻的岛屿夏威夷出现之前很久就进化出了不会飞的特性，而它们在夏威夷岛上并不存在。古代DNA为这些奇异鸟类的关系提供了一个新的假说，而形态特征的系统发育证据因一只小型会飞的鸭子进化为巨型陆生食草动物的进化转变而变得模糊不清。
