Jessica E. Thomas, Gary R. Carvalho, James Haile, Michael D. Martin, Jose A. Samaniego Castruita, Jonas Niemann, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, Marcela Sandoval-Velasco, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Errol Fuller, Jon Fjeldsa, Michael Hofreiter, John R. Stewart, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Michael Knapp
- One hundred and seventy-three years ago, the last two Great Auks, Pinguinus impennis, ever reliably seen were killed. Their internal organs can be found in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, but the location of their skins has remained a mystery. In 1999, Great Auk expert Errol Fuller proposed a list of five potential candidate skins in museums around the world. Here we take a palaeogenomic approach to test which—if any—of Fuller’s candidate skins likely belong to either of the two birds. Using mitochondrial genomes from the five candidate birds (housed in museums in Bremen, Brussels, Kiel, Los Angeles, and Oldenburg) and the organs of the last two known individuals, we partially solve the mystery that has been on Great Auk scholars’ minds for generations and make new suggestions as to the whereabouts of the still-missing skin from these two birds.
MetadatenAuthor details: | Jessica E. ThomasORCiD, Gary R. Carvalho, James Haile, Michael D. Martin, Jose A. Samaniego Castruita, Jonas Niemann, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, Marcela Sandoval-VelascoORCiD, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Errol Fuller, Jon Fjeldsa, Michael HofreiterORCiDGND, John R. Stewart, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Michael Knapp |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3390/genes8060164 |
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ISSN: | 2073-4425 |
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Title of parent work (English): | Genes |
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Subtitle (English): | a genetic approach to discover the whereabouts of the Last Great Auks |
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Publisher: | MDPI |
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Place of publishing: | Basel |
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Publication type: | Article |
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Language: | English |
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Date of first publication: | 2017/06/15 |
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Publication year: | 2017 |
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Release date: | 2022/04/19 |
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Tag: | ancient DNA; extinct birds; mitochondrial genome; museum specimens; palaeogenomics |
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Volume: | 8 |
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Issue: | 6 |
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Number of pages: | 12 |
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First page: | 164 |
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Funding institution: | NERC Ph.D. Studentship [NE/L501694/1]; Genetics Society-Heredity Fieldwork Grant; European Society for Evolutionary Biology-Godfrey Hewitt Mobility Award; Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand |
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Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
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DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie |
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Peer review: | Referiert |
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Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
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| DOAJ gelistet |
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License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
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