Late Holocene range collapse in a former British seabird species. (7th April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brace, Selina; Barnes, Ian; Kitchener, Andrew C.; Serjeantson, Dale; Turvey, Samuel T.; Stewart, John
• Is Part Of: Journal of biogeography. Volume 41:Number 8(2014:Aug.)
• Page Start: 1583
• Page End: 1589
• Publication Date: 2014-04-07
• Subjects: Biogeography -- Periodicals; 578.09
• DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12305
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-0270

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="jbi12305-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="jbi12305-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Aim</title> <p>To determine the taxonomic identity of zooarchaeological gadfly petrel (<italic>Pterodroma</italic>) specimens from northern Europe, in order to investigate whether an unknown, now‐extinct <italic>Pterodroma</italic> species formerly occurred in this region, or whether extant north‐east Atlantic gadfly petrel populations now restricted to the Macaronesian Islands formerly had a much wider Holocene distribution.</p> </sec> <sec id="jbi12305-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Location</title> <p>Zooarchaeological <italic>Pterodroma</italic> material from the Hebrides, Scotland, was compared with modern‐day material from the Madeira and Cape Verde archipelagos (Macaronesia) and a global <italic>Pterodroma</italic> sample.</p> </sec> <sec id="jbi12305-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>We employed techniques for ancient DNA analysis to amplify mitochondrial cytochrome <italic>b</italic> sequence data from an Iron Age Scottish <italic>Pterodroma</italic> specimen. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses were applied to assess the phylogenetic relationship between these ancient sequence data and extant <italic>Pterodroma</italic> taxa.</p> </sec> <sec id="jbi12305-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>The Scottish <italic>Pterodroma</italic> sample is phylogenetically distinct from living Macaronesian populations and from all other extant <italic>Pterodroma</italic> taxa. Although it is phylogenetically placed outside any single Macaronesian taxon, it is most closely related to the <italic>P. feae</italic>–<italic>deserta</italic> complex, and the level of sequence divergence between the Scottish <italic>Pterodroma</italic> and Macaronesian populations is lower than that observed between any two extant global <italic>Pterodroma</italic> taxa. The extinct north Atlantic gadfly petrels are therefore not distinct at the species level from these surviving populations, and instead form part of the young evolutionary radiation represented today by recently divergent <italic>Pterodroma</italic> populations on Bugio and Cape Verde, which can all be interpreted as conspecific.</p> </sec> <sec id="jbi12305-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Main conclusions</title> <p>Our results suggest that surviving Macaronesian <italic>P</italic>. <italic>feae</italic>–<italic>deserta</italic> populations represent the final remnant of a wider Holocene distribution of this species complex, with the Madeira and Cape Verde archipelagos constituting the final sanctuary of <italic>Pterodroma</italic> in the north Atlantic following late Holocene extirpation of more northerly colonies possibly associated with human‐mediated invasive mammal introduction across northern Europe. Macaronesia may therefore constitute a 'museum' of diversity rather than a 'cradle' of evolution for Atlantic <italic>Pterodroma</italic>.</p> </sec> </abstract>