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Systematic Zoology Advance Access published online on November 13, 2009
Systematic Zoology, doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp079
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© The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Tinamous and Moa Flock Together: Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Analysis Reveals Independent Losses of Flight among Ratites

Matthew J. Phillips1,*, Gillian C. Gibb2, Elizabeth A. Crimp2 and David Penny2

1 Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, School of Botany and Zoology, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia;
2 Allan Wilson Center and Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

* Correspondence to be sent to: Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Gould Building, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; E-mail: matt.phillips{at}anu.edu.au.


  Abstract

Ratites are large, flightless birds and include the ostrich, rheas, kiwi, emu, and cassowaries, along with extinct members, such as moa and elephant birds. Previous phylogenetic analyses of complete mitochondrial genome sequences have reinforced the traditional belief that ratites are monophyletic and tinamous are their sister group. However, in these studies ratite monophyly was enforced in the analyses that modeled rate heterogeneity among variable sites. Relaxing this topological constraint results in strong support for the tinamous (which fly) nesting within ratites. Furthermore, upon reducing base compositional bias and partitioning models of sequence evolution among protein codon positions and RNA structures, the tinamou–moa clade grouped with kiwi, emu, and cassowaries to the exclusion of the successively more divergent rheas and ostrich. These relationships are consistent with recent results from a large nuclear data set, whereas our strongly supported finding of a tinamou–moa grouping further resolves palaeognath phylogeny. We infer flight to have been lost among ratites multiple times in temporally close association with the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event. This circumvents requirements for transient microcontinents and island chains to explain discordance between ratite phylogeny and patterns of continental breakup. Ostriches may have dispersed to Africa from Eurasia, putting in question the status of ratites as an iconic Gondwanan relict taxon.

Keywords: Base composition; flightless; Gondwana; mitochondrial genome; Palaeognathae; phylogeny; ratites

Received January 19, 2009; Revised April 20, 2009; Accepted October 14, 2009

Associate Editor: Adrian Paterson


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