Puddle Duck Genetics & Genus Restructuring

[Carl]

If you followed along the Balsa thread on the Carvers Corner, and previous other Forum threads, you know how much fun the confusion between common names vs. scientific names can be.
Even better is the debates between lumpers and splitters in the wildlife biologists community. I tended to be a lumper until advances in genetic studies started providing very clear relationships between species. These advances resulted in the old "lumper" genus Anas being split.
Pointed our what many suspected, that bluewinged teal are actually spoonies.
And gadwalls are actually wigeon.
A lot of other ducks that we thought were just modified mallards, aren't.
And pintails should probably be their own genus, as should true teals.
Here is the new phylogenies:

 

[Eric Patterson]

When I first started hunting with Jeff he told me bluewings were far more closely related to shovellers than greenwings. He was right. I never really thought about gadwall being that close to wigeon but it must be true if DNA says so.

 

[Carl]

The first time I ever shot a bluewing back in 1997, my first thought when I saw the bill was this sure looks like a hen shoveler!

Gadwall was a surprise to me. I was thinking more closely related to pintails. But nope. Mitochondrial DNA does not lie.

 

[Vince Pagliaroli]

Thank you Carl.

Very informative but not surprising. The Pintail for sure is in a class of it's own for many reasons. NY waterfowl ID classes show the similarities of the Wigeon and the Gadwall (the white oval of the underside of the duck while in flight). Carvers Corner helps here also cuz no one studies ducks more than carver/makers 24/7/365. Many to the point of obsession... and nit picking.

Best regards
Vince

 

[Steve Sanford]

If you followed along the Balsa thread on the Carvers Corner, and previous other Forum threads, you know how much fun the confusion between common names vs. scientific names can be.
Even better is the debates between lumpers and splitters in the wildlife biologists community. I tended to be a lumper until advances in genetic studies started providing very clear relationships between species. These advances resulted in the old "lumper" genus Anas being split.
Pointed our what many suspected, that bluewinged teal are actually spoonies.
And gadwalls are actually wigeon.
A lot of other ducks that we thought were just modified mallards, aren't.
And pintails should probably be their own genus, as should true teals.
Here is the new phylogenies:
View attachment 58101View attachment 58102View attachment 58103

Carl~

Thanks so much for this! All makes sense - except I, too, never knew where to put the Grey Duck...

And, I especially get a kick out of the resurgence of the genera I learned before I ever held a shotgun! (Mostly Audubon Water Bird Guide - but also Kortwright and others.)

All the best,

SJS

 

[Carl]

Here is the study: https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00622.x

Hope the link works.

Abstract​

We produced DNA sequence data from two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b and the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2) to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships among 121 species of the Anseriformes (waterfowls including ducks, geese, swans, the magpie goose and screamers). Phylogenetic analyses converged into a congruent topology and defined several well-supported clades. We calibrated a molecular clock and reconstructed ancestral biogeographical areas using Bayesian inference supporting an austral continental (Gondwanaland) origin of the waterfowls. Ducks, swans and geese might have diversified during the Miocene (23–5 Myr ago) reaching northern distributions in Holarctic and Afrotropical regions. The evolution of hybridization patterns in Anseriformes has been investigated using a cladistic analysis (morphology), which may underestimate or overestimate the phylogenetic divergence among species, or restricted only to ducks. Using a phylogenetic framework, genetic-based distances and a Bayesian time calibration, our data support the hypothesis based on immunological distances of slow rate of appearance of reproductive incompatibilities in waterfowls compared with other vertebrates and the view that these birds may be like frogs in having lost their interspecific hybridization potential more slowly than mammals.