The molecular ecology of the extinct New Zealand Huia

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dc.contributor.authorLambert D
dc.contributor.authorShepherd L
dc.contributor.authorHuynen L
dc.contributor.authorBeans Picon G
dc.contributor.authorWalter G
dc.contributor.authorMillar C
dc.date.accessioned2010-12-06T22:20:39Z
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-06T22:26:22Z
dc.date.availableNO_RESTRICTION
dc.date.available2010-12-06T22:20:39Z
dc.date.available2016-03-06T22:26:22Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.descriptionFunding: This research was supported by Griffith University, the Marsden Fund and the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
dc.description.abstractThe extinct Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) of New Zealand represents the most extreme example of beak dimorphism known in birds. We used a combination of nuclear genotyping methods, molecular sexing, and morphometric analyses of museum specimens collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to quantify the sexual dimorphism and population structure of this extraordinary species. We report that the classical description of Huia as having distinctive sex-linked morphologies is not universally correct. Four Huia, sexed as females had short beaks and, on this basis, were indistinguishable from males. Hence, we suggest it is likely that Huia males and females were indistinguishable as juveniles and that the well-known beak dimorphism is the result of differential beak growth rates in males and females. Furthermore, we tested the prediction that the social organisation and limited powers of flight of Huia resulted in high levels of population genetic structure. Using a suite of microsatellite DNA loci, we report high levels of genetic diversity in Huia, and we detected no significant population genetic structure. In addition, using mitochondrial hypervariable region sequences, and likely mutation rates and generation times, we estimated that the census population size of Huia was moderately high. We conclude that the social organization and limited powers of flight did not result in a highly structured population.
dc.identifier.citationLambert, D. M., Shepherd, L. D., Huynen, L., Beans-Picón, G., Walter, G. H., & Millar, C. D. (2009). The Molecular Ecology of the Extinct New Zealand Huia. Plos One, 4(11), e8019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008019
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10179/1953
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
dc.relation.isbasedonPLoS One
dc.relation.isformatofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008019
dc.rights2009 Lambert et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.subjectMolecular ecology
dc.subjectExtinction
dc.subjectHuia
dc.subjectNative bird
dc.subjectHeteralocha acutirostris
dc.subjectNew Zealand
dc.subject.otherFields of Research::270000 Biological Sciences::270200 Genetics::270208 Molecular evolution
dc.titleThe molecular ecology of the extinct New Zealand Huia
dc.typeJournal article
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