Ancient DNA provides new insights into the evolutionary history of New Zealand's extinct giant eagle.
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.
Bunce
Michael
M
Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre, Department of Zoology University of Oxford, United Kingdom. buncem@mcmaster.ca
Szulkin
Marta
M
Lerner
Heather R L
HR
Barnes
Ian
I
Shapiro
Beth
B
Cooper
Alan
A
Holdaway
Richard N
RN
D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D020307:Eagles / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005580:Fossils; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009520:New Zealand; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods
D004247:DNA