title: Mid-Pleistocene divergence of Cuban and North American ivory-billed woodpeckers.
abstract: We used ancient DNA analysis of seven museum specimens of the endangered North American ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) and three specimens of the species from Cuba to document their degree of differentiation and their relationships to other Campephilus woodpeckers. Analysis of these mtDNA sequences reveals that the Cuban and North American ivory bills, along with the imperial woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) of Mexico, are a monophyletic group and are roughly equidistant genetically, suggesting each lineage may be a separate species. Application of both internal and external rate calibrations indicates that the three lineages split more than one million years ago, in the Mid-Pleistocene. We thus can exclude the hypothesis that Native Americans introduced North American ivory-billed woodpeckers to Cuba. Our sequences of all three woodpeckers also provide an important DNA barcoding resource for identification of non-invasive samples or remains of these critically endangered and charismatic woodpeckers.
authors.affiliation: Genetics Program, National Museum of Natural History and National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20008, USA. fleischr@si.edu
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Fleischer
authors.forename: Jeremy J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kirchman
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dumbacher
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bevier
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dove
authors.forename: Nancy C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Rotzel
authors.forename: Scott V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Martjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lammertink
authors.forename: Kathleen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Miglia
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001717:Birds / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003462:Cuba; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000378:metabolism; D004463:Ecology; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008954:Models, Biological; D009656:North America; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial