Ancient DNA provides new insights into the evolutionary history of New Zealand's extinct Giant Eagle
Date
2005
Authors
Bunce, M.
Szulkin, M.
Lerner, R.
Barnes, I.
Shapiro, B.
Cooper, A.
Holdaway, R.
Editors
Penny, D.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
PLoS Biology, 2005; 3(1):1-10
Statement of Responsibility
Michael Bunce, Marta Szulkin, Heather R. L. Lerner, Ian Barnes, Beth Shapiro, Alan Cooper, Richard N. Holdaway
Conference Name
Abstract
Prior to human settlement 700 years ago New Zealand had no terrestrial mammals—apart from three species of bats—instead, approximately 250 avian species dominated the ecosystem. At the top of the food chain was the extinct Haast's eagle, Harpagornis moorei. H. moorei (10–15 kg; 2–3 m wingspan) was 30%–40% heavier than the largest extant eagle (the harpy eagle, Harpia harpyja), and hunted moa up to 15 times its weight. In a dramatic example of morphological plasticity and rapid size increase, we show that the H. moorei was very closely related to one of the world's smallest extant eagles, which is one-tenth its mass. This spectacular evolutionary change illustrates the potential speed of size alteration within lineages of vertebrates, especially in island ecosystems.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright: © 2005 Bunce 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 work is properly cited.