MOLECULAR RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN AUSTRALASIAN WATERFOWL (ANSERIFORMES)

Within Australia there are 19 endemic species of Anseriformes. Six of these belong to monotypic genera, some of which remain controversial w ith respect to phylogenetic relationships. Sequence variation in a 307 -base pair fragment of the cytochrome-b gene was compared from 23 spec ies of waterfowl (the Cairina sequence was obtained from the literatur e) to elucidate further the relationships of these monotypic Australia n genera. Anseranas and Dendrocygna were identified as the earliest di verged genera among the taxa examined. The remaining genera fell into two groups: (1) Tadorna, Alopochen, Chenonetta, Anas, Aythya, Cairina and Air and (2) Cygnus, Branta, Cereopsis, Biziura, Oxyura, Malacorhyn chus, Stictonetta and Nettapus. The controversial nature of the last g roup is discussed.