DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST COMPLETE SKELETON OF THE EXTINCT NEW-ZEALANDGOOSE CNEMIORNIS-CALCITRANS (AVES, ANATIDAE), AND A REASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIPS OF CNEMIORNIS
Th. Worthy et al., DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST COMPLETE SKELETON OF THE EXTINCT NEW-ZEALANDGOOSE CNEMIORNIS-CALCITRANS (AVES, ANATIDAE), AND A REASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIPS OF CNEMIORNIS, Journal of zoology, 243, 1997, pp. 695-723
The discovery of the first essentially complete Cnemiornis calcitrans
skeleton is reported. This has facilitated a description of features o
f the skeleton not previously described and a reassessment of the phyl
ogenetic relationships of Cnemiornis. A morphological comparison is su
pported by a cladistic analysis to show that Cnemiornis is the sister
taxon of Cereopsis novaehollandiae. The data set based on morphologica
l characters was insufficient to resolve the issue of whether the Cnem
iornis/Cereopsis clade was the sister taxon of the rest of the Anserin
es or more primitive than them. The anserines (geese and swans) are th
e sister group to Dendrocygna, Thalassornis, and all other anatids. A
96 base pair sequence of mitochondrial DNA is reported for Cnemiornis
calcitrans which shows much similarity with the equivalent section in
Cereopsis, and is considerably different from other anserines. The DNA
sequence supports the inclusion of the Cnemiornis/Cereopsis clade wit
hin the Anserinae.