10.5061/DRYAD.KPRR4XH1X
Thomas, Daniel
0000-0001-7679-0991
Massey University
Tennyson, Alan
0000-0001-6374-6924
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Scofield, R. Paul
Canterbury Musuem
Heath, Tracy
0000-0002-0087-2541
Iowa State University
Pett, Walker
Iowa State University
Ksepka, Daniel
Bruce Museum
Ancient crested penguin constrains timing of recruitment into seabird hotspot
Dryad
dataset
2020
Bayesian phylogeny
Eudyptes
New Zealand
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB1556615
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DBI-1759909
Massey University Research Fund*
National Museum of New Zealand acquisition fund*
Massey University Research Fund
National Museum of New Zealand acquisition fund
2020-09-09T00:00:00Z
2020-09-09T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1497
185746 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
New Zealand is a globally significant hotspot for seabird diversity, but
the sparse fossil record for most seabird lineages has impeded our
understanding of how and when this hotspot developed. Here, we describe
multiple exceptionally well-preserved specimens of a new species of
penguin from tightly dated (3.36–3.06 Ma) Pliocene deposits in New
Zealand. Bayesian and parsimony analyses place Eudyptes atatu sp. nov. as
the sister species to all extant and recently extinct members of the
crested penguin genus Eudyptes. The new species has a markedly more
slender upper beak and mandible compared with other Eudyptes penguins. Our
combined evidence approach reveals that deep bills evolved in both crested
and stiff-tailed penguins (Pygoscelis) during the Pliocene. That deep
bills arose so late in the greater than 60 million year evolutionary
history of penguins suggests that dietary shifts may have occurred as
wind-driven Pliocene upwelling radically restructured southern ocean
ecosystems. Ancestral area reconstructions using BioGeoBEARS identify New
Zealand as the most likely ancestral area for total-group penguins, crown
penguins and crested penguins. Our analyses provide a timeframe for
recruitment of crown penguins into the New Zealand avifauna, indicating
this process began in the late Neogene and was completed via multiple
waves of colonizing lineages.
Includes two datasets: 1) Zip file with scripts and data associated with
RevBayes analysis (see https://revbayes.github.io/) performed in this
study. 2) NEXUS file with matrix used for parsimony analysis.