Phylogenetic relationships of the extinct St Helena petrel, Pterodroma rupinarum Olson, 1975 (Procellariiformes: Procellariidae), based on ancient DNA

摘要: Palaeontological studies show that three endemic procellariid seabird species became extinct on the remote island of St Helena in South Atlantic Ocean. At least one these, Pterodroma rupinarum Olson, 1975, is likely to have survived until human colonization island, although it known only from subfossil bones. Several are distributed across Atlantic, but skull and bill Pt. rupinarum were judged be more similar Indo-Pacific rostrata group, which was recently split into separate genus Pseudobulweria. We used ancient DNA techniques sequence mitochondrial cytochrome b gene Pt. rupinarum, conducted phylogenetic analyses investigate placement this enigmatic taxon. In trees constructed using maximum likelihood Bayesian inference, did not group with Pseudobulweria, instead fell within a strongly supported clade Pterodroma, including endangered Black-capped [Pterodroma hasitata (Kuhl, 1820)] Bermuda cahow (Nichols & Mowbray, 1916)] petrels, as well Macaronesian petrels madeira Mathews, 1934, feae (Salvadori, 1899) deserta Mathews, 1934]. rupinarum shared particularly close relationship Pt. feae Cape Verde Islands, also geographically closest clade. Considering osteological distinctiveness probably species, or at highly diverged population isolated for substantial period time prior its extinction.