In a genetic surprise, ancient DNA shows the closest family members of an extinct bird known as the Haitian cave-rail are not in the Americas, but Africa and the South Pacific, uncovering an unexpected link between Caribbean bird life and the Old World.
Like many animals unique to the Caribbean, cave-rails became extinct soon after people settled the islands. The last of three known West Indian species of cave-rails – flightless, chicken-sized birds – vanished within the past 1,000 years. Florida Museum of Natural History researchers sought to resolve the group’s long-debated ancestry by analyzing DNA from a fossil toe bone of the Haitian cave-rail, Nesotrochis steganinos. But they were unprepared for the results: The genus Nesotrochis is most closely related to the flufftails, flying birds that live in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and New Guinea, and the adzebills, large, extinct, flightless birds native to New Zealand.
Extinct Caribbean bird s closest relatives hail from Africa, South Pacific – Florida Museum Science
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Extinct Caribbean bird s closest relatives hail from Africa, South Pacific
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Extinct Caribbean bird s closest relatives hail from Africa, South Pacific
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