Meeting Abstract

33-4  Thursday, Jan. 5 14:15 – 14:30  Sequencing Dead Ducks – The Labrador Duck is Sister to Stellar’s Eider and the Subfossil Chendytes lawi roots the dabbling duck clade BUCKNER, JC*; ELLINGSON, R; GOLD, DA; JACOBS, DK; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of California, Los Angeles jcharrayb@ucla.edu http://black2nature.weebly.com

Morphological assessments of 2.5 thousand year old Chendytes, fossil flightless anseriforms from coastal California, revealed characters related to diving and led to assignment of the species to the sea ducks (Mergini). Using a bait approach, we recovered complete mitochondrial sequence of seven purported Mergini species, including Camptorhyncus labradorius (the recently extinct Labrador duck) and Chendytes lawi. Phylogenetic analyses places C. labradorius as sister to Steller’s Eider within the Mergini. However, the placement of Chendytes as a basal member of Anatini (dabbling ducks) supports evolution of dabbling from diving. Our study shows how recently extinct relict lineages can strongly influence our inferences about biogeography and diversification of modern groups when properly placed on phylogenetic trees.