Australian and New Zealand researchers have used ancient DNA from penguin fossils to make a startling discovery that may change the way we view species extinctions.
A team from the University of Adelaide, the University of Otago and Canterbury Museum in New Zealand, has identified a previously unknown penguin species while conducting research on New Zealand’s endangered yellow-eyed penguin, one the world’s rarest penguin species and the subject of an extensive conservation effort.The Waitaha penguin became extinct after Polynesian settlement but before 1500 AD, creating an opportunity for the yellow-eyed penguin to subsequently colonize the New Zealand mainland from its base in the sub-Antarctic islands.
“Our findings demonstrate that yellow-eyed penguins on mainland New Zealand are not a declining remnant of a previous abundant population, but came from the sub-Antarctic relatively recently and replaced the extinct Waitaha Penguin,†said team member Dr Jeremy Austin, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
“Previous analysis of fossil records and anecdotal evidence suggested that the yellow-eyed penguin was more abundant and widespread in the past, but it now appears they have only been around for 500 years,†he said.
The team, led by University of Otago PhD student Sanne Boessenkool, identified the large-bodied Waitaha Penguin using ancient DNA from prehistoric bones, combined with traditional morphological techniques
“Competition between the two species previously prevented the yellow-eyed penguin from expanding northwards but environmental changes in the predator population, such as the severe decline of sea lions, may have facilitated their colonization in the South Island.â€Â
Researchers say the surprising finding demonstrates the unexpected ways in which species can respond to human and environmental impacts, and the role of extinction events in shaping our current environment.
Wait a minute, are you saying Scientists don’t know everything there is to know about the past?
Get out of here!
Gosh, it seems as though I need to explain everything to you guys. I DEMAND THAT THEY RAISE THIS PENGUIN SPECIES FROM THE DEAD AND EJECT THE YELLOW-EYES FROM THEIR TERRITORY!!!
FOR THE MEGADYPTOCIDE!
Great, more CO2 producing life. Remind me why extinction is a bad thing!
The “ancient DNA from Penguin fossils” phrase drew me up short. DNA from fossils? (I have loosely and ignorantly associated the word “fossils” with the idea “mineralized remains” or “rock like stuff”, which sort of stuff I didn’t think contained recognizable DNA.) So I repaired to a dictionary to learn that fossil derives from a Latin word meaning “to have dug up” or “obtained by digging”.
Further research revealed that “On occasion, Europeans traded goods for sex.” I shit you not, as the saying goes.
I believe it was during one of Cook’s voyages that the sailors learned that the local women would trade sex for a couple of iron nails.
They had to put an armed guard on the ship’s nail supply, and keep a close eye out for sailors damaging the structural integrity of the ship by prying them out.
AND EJECT THE YELLOW-EYES FROM THEIR TERRITORY!!!
Ocular racist.
Sounds like they’re having some problem with the concept of species and evolution as well if they think an entirely new species evolved in the last 500 years.
WHY DO YOU NEOTHEOCONS WAGE WAR ON SCIENCE ?!?!?!
In the alternative, they could bother themselves to say where else further south the (creepy) Yellow-eyes have been hanging out prior to the last 500 yrs, CT, and even, if they felt the urge, how long that hang out might have been going on.
From the linked piece;
The Waitaha penguin became extinct after Polynesian settlement but before 1500 AD…
Wiki expands:
As the local MÄÂori people have no record of this different species,[3] it is estimated to have perished between c. AD 1300 and 1500, soon after Polynesian settlers arrived in New Zealand.[5] While it is currently unclear precisely how the species became extinct, Boessenkool says they were probably eaten by the settlers. “The fact we find these bones in archaeological sites, villages or settlements, suggests hunting played a role. The birds were an easy target, easy to take and there were never very many of them.”
Since we know all primitive stone age peoples lived in perfect harmony with nature this cannot possibly be true. Bad, bad, bad, bad science!
See also: the moa.
Also: almost all of the megafauna of North and South America.
Since we know all primitive stone age peoples lived in perfect harmony with nature this cannot possibly be true. Bad, bad, bad, bad science!
Next you’ll be telling me that American Indians used to stampede whole herds of bison off the edge of a cliff just to eat the few on top of the pile below.
Sheesh!!!
Only when they ran out of wooly mammoth, Cowboy.
B-But, I don’t understand…
How could the breathtakingly holistic, and enviably in tune with nature, noble-savage-esque proto-polynesians-who were exponentially wiser and more well adjusted than we’ll be, EVAH!– be responsible for such villainous environmental terrorism..?
LIES!, LIES!, LYING LIARS!!1!1!eleventy!11!!!
There must be something wrong with the methedology and assumptions used to date these finds…
Or, more likely, there are white Europeans to be found at the root of this penguincaust!
AND IT’S A FILTHY COVERUP!!1!1!!
“Wait a minute, are you saying Scientists don’t know everything there is to know about the past?”
No- but maybe a teeny-weeny bit more than your run-of-the-mill post-modern, deconstructionist English lit professor.
But while we do often find out new stuff that disproves the old stuff, I would call that scientific P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S rather than a fault of the scientific method itself.
And while it IS interesting to see how the discoveries of these “new” species may balance out the “species holocaust” on the other side, I’d rather not have this thread turn into a debate on evolution vs. creationism (unless I just midwifed said thread turn, in which case your free to let it all hang out).
WHY MUST YOU NEO THEO CONZ CONTINUALLY WAGE WAR ON SCIENCE ?! LISTEN TO CHRIS S YOU DUM FUCKERZ !!! New species of extinct penguins makes perfect sense. These are the same people that say global warming is causing sub-Arctic temps in the Midwest for the 3rd winter in a row. Species holocaust, I tell you. Chris speaks of serious shit. Gas chambers for polar bears. Beheadings for the snail darters.
Uh, JD, they may not be the “same people” hawking the global warming crap- remember that any “consensus” reached on “climate change” is reached by simply voting the dissenting scientists off the panel (and calling them Nazis and threatening to jail them).
By the way, today’s new word is . . . .drum-roll please . . . .
“S-C-A-R-E-Q-U-O-T-E-S”!
You know, as in: “scare quotes”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quote
(Can you say: “scare quotes”?)
I saw some yellow-eyes on the South Island of NZ back in 1997. Hoihos, I think the local name is. Can’t recall exactly where – somewhere on the extreme southern coast, south of Dunedin. I have photos (antique, pre-digital types) somewhere.
Wonderful place, that South Island. Beautiful, mostly empty, quirky friendly locals in small towns. Nature in full, but less overwhelming than Alaska’s vastness.
I vaguely understand they’ve even now installed an adult government down there, after so many years. Hardly a balance to the impending down-shifting in the US, but still.