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      Prehistoric avifaunas from the Kingdom of Tonga

      1 , 2
      Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
      Oxford University Press (OUP)

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          Abstract

          Avifaunas derived from Lapita archaeological sites excavated between 2004 and 2014 from four sites in the Vava'u Group and two on Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga are described, revealing birds encountered by the first human arrivals. A total of 741 identifiable bones revealed 24 avian taxa, among which terrestrial birds, especially rails, pigeons and parrots, were the most abundant. At a minimum, eight taxa, or 50% of the original non-passerine land bird diversity in the sample, are globally extinct. These include two megapodes (Megapodius alimentum and a larger unnamed megapode), three pigeons (a large Caloenas sp. indet., Didunculus placopedetes and Ducula shutleri sp. nov.), two rails (Hypotaenidia vavauensis sp. nov. and an unnamed one) and the parrot Eclectus infectus. The rail H. vavauensis was restricted to Vava'u and was flightless, with reduced wings, and larger than Hypotaenidia woodfordi of the Solomons, the largest congener hitherto found in the Pacific. The pigeon Du. shutleri was volant, but was the largest species in its genus and was widespread in the Kingdom. The evolution of Tongan avifaunas is related to varying ages (Pliocene to Pleistocene) of the island groups, where geological youth apparently precluded true giantism in the fauna.

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          Prehistoric extinctions of pacific island birds: biodiversity meets zooarchaeology.

          On tropical Pacific islands, a human-caused "biodiversity crisis" began thousands of years ago and has nearly run its course. Bones identified from archaeological sites show that most species of land birds and populations of seabirds on those islands were exterminated by prehistoric human activities. The loss of birdlife in the tropical Pacific may exceed 2000 species (a majority of which were species of flightless rails) and thus represents a 20 percent worldwide reduction in the number of species of birds. The current global extinction crisis therefore has historic precedent.
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            Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution.

            The evolution of the ratite birds has been widely attributed to vicariant speciation, driven by the Cretaceous breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. The early isolation of Africa and Madagascar implies that the ostrich and extinct Madagascan elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) should be the oldest ratite lineages. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of two elephant birds and performed phylogenetic analyses, which revealed that these birds are the closest relatives of the New Zealand kiwi and are distant from the basal ratite lineage of ostriches. This unexpected result strongly contradicts continental vicariance and instead supports flighted dispersal in all major ratite lineages. We suggest that convergence toward gigantism and flightlessness was facilitated by early Tertiary expansion into the diurnal herbivory niche after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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              Caroli Illigeri ... Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium additis terminis zoographicis utriusque classis, eorumque versione germanica.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
                Oxford University Press (OUP)
                0024-4082
                1096-3642
                July 2020
                June 27 2020
                November 18 2019
                July 2020
                June 27 2020
                November 18 2019
                : 189
                : 3
                : 998-1045
                Affiliations
                [1 ]College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
                [2 ]Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
                Article
                10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz110
                725934a2-578a-42ad-bd6c-ae3dedfec8aa
                © 2019

                https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model

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