Conflicting Evidence in Waterfowl Systematics

michael D. sorenson博士；波士顿大学的迈克尔·索伦森（Michael Sorenson）获得了一项资助，通过比较DNA序列分析，为鸭科鸟类（鸭、鹅和天鹅）构建一个全面的系统发育或进化树。在除南极洲以外的所有大陆上都有发现，水禽在经济和文化上都很重要，因为它们在运动猎人、观鸟者、鸟类养殖者和艺术家中很受欢迎。水禽在进化生物学中也占有重要地位，最近已成为湿地保护的“旗舰”。大约150种水禽将收集5000个碱基对的DNA序列数据。这些分子数据将与先前发表的有关水禽形态和行为的信息相结合，重建水禽种、属和亚科之间的进化关系。初步结果表明形态学和分子证据之间存在明显的冲突，并指出对水禽系统发育的现有观点进行了实质性的修订。这种冲突似乎主要是与跳水有关的形态特征趋同进化的结果。水禽的生态和行为多样性与大量现有的比较数据相结合，为分子、行为、形态和生活史进化的研究提供了无与伦比的机会。然而，这种潜力的实现依赖于一个可靠的、得到充分证实的系统发育，它允许人们区分共同的祖先和对共同环境条件的适应，作为物种之间相似性的另一种解释。比较分析将使人们更好地了解水禽的生态适应性，从而为野生动物管理者和保护生物学家的工作提供信息。该研究还将为系统学家提供开发新方法的示范数据集

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