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.