Extinct petrels

Evolutionary History and Systematics of Extant and Extinct Seabirds

Many species of seabirds are endangered today due to habitat modification and introduced predators such as cats, rats, and mongoose. However, relatively few seabird species are known to have gone extinct, as compared to terrestrial species. I am working in collaboration with Rob Fleischer, Helen James, and Megan Spitzer at the Smithsonian Institution to investigate a petrel that apparently went extinct after the Polynesians colonized the Hawaiian Islands about 1000 years ago, but prior to first European contact by Captain Cook in 1778. This species, Pterodroma jugabilis, has morphological characteristics intermediate to those of several Procellariid seabirds. For example, the presence of a deep depression on the distal end of the humerus is reminiscent of Pterodroma petrels. However, the depression on the skull for the salt glands is fused at the midline, somewhat similar to petrels of the genera Bulweria and Pseudobulweria. Further, they are more gracile than the petrels, akin to the Puffinus shearwaters. I am using ancient DNA techniques to sequence the Cytochrome b gene and determine the phylogenetic placement of this enigmatic taxon.