Conflicting Evidence in Waterfowl Systematics

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DEB 0089760Michael D. SorensonDr. Michael Sorenson of Boston University has been awarded a grant to construct a comprehensive phylogeny or evolutionary tree for the avian family Anatidae (the ducks, geese, and swans) by comparative DNA sequence analyses. Found on all continents except Antarctica, the waterfowl are economically and culturally important due to their popularity with sport hunters, birders, aviculturalists, and artists. Waterfowl have also figured prominently in evolutionary biology and more recently have become "flagships" for wetlands conservation About 5,000 base pairs of DNA sequence data will be collected for each of the ~150 species of waterfowl. These molecular data will be combined with previously published information on their morphology and behavior to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among waterfowl species, genera, and sub-families. Preliminary results suggest significant conflict between morphological and molecular evidence and point to a substantial revision of current views of waterfowl phylogeny. This conflict appears to be largely the result of convergent evolution in morphological characters associated with diving. The ecological and behavioral diversity of waterfowl combined with an extensive body of existing comparative data present unparalleled opportunities for the study of molecular, behavioral, morphological, and life history evolution. The realization of this potential, however, relies on the availability of a robust and well-corroborated phylogeny which allows one to discriminate between shared ancestry and adaptation to common environmental conditions as alternative explanations for similarities between species. Comparative analyses will lead to a better understanding of the ecological adaptations of waterfowl and thereby inform the efforts of wildlife managers and conservation biologists. The research also will provide systematists with an exemplary data set for the development of new