A new endemic family of New Zealand passerine birds: adding heat to a biodiversity hotspot
Amy Driskell A , Les Christidis B C , B. J. Gill D G , Walter E. Boles B , F. Keith Barker E and N. W. Longmore FA Laboratories of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA.
B Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
C Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia.
D Auckland War Memorial Museum, Private Bag 92018, Auckland, New Zealand.
E Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA.
F Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Vic. 3001, Australia.
G Corresponding author. Email: bgill@aucklandmuseum.com
Australian Journal of Zoology 55(2) 73-78 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO07007
Submitted: 6 February 2007 Accepted: 11 April 2007 Published: 28 May 2007
Abstract
The results of phylogenetic analysis of two molecular datasets sampling all three endemic New Zealand ‘honeyeaters’ (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae, Anthornis melanura and Notiomystis cincta) are reported. The undisputed relatedness of the first two species to other honeyeaters (Meliphagidae), and a close relationship between them, are demonstrated. However, our results confirm that Notiomystis is not a honeyeater, but is instead most closely related to the Callaeidae (New Zealand wattlebirds) represented by Philesturnus carunculatus in our study. An estimated divergence time for Notiomystis and Philesturnus of 33.8 mya (Oligocene) suggests a very long evolutionary history of this clade in New Zealand. As a taxonomic interpretation of these data we place Notiomystis in a new family of its own which takes the name Notiomystidae. We expect this new phylogenetic and taxonomic information to assist policy decisions for the conservation of this rare bird.
Acknowledgements
We thank the researchers and museum staff who provided dead birds or tissue samples from which sequences were obtained for the phylogenetic analyses, including Museum of New Zealand (Wellington), Prof. D.M. Lambert (Massey University, Albany, New Zealand) and S. Jack. We are grateful to Dr M. Sanderson for the generous use of his laboratory at the University of California, Davis, and anonymous referees for helpful comments on the paper.
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