Cenozoic Evolution of Eurasian Anatids (Aves: Anatidae s. l.)
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zoic Evolution of Eurasian Anatids (Aves: Anatidae s. l.)1 N. V. Zelenkov* Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 117997 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received July 20, 2018; revised February 27, 2019; accepted April 23, 2019
Abstract—An analysis of the Eurasian Cenozoic (late Eocene-Neogene) fossil record of anatids (Anatidae s. l.; including Romainvilliinae and Dendrocygninae) is presented. The evolutionary origin of Anatidae s. l. may be associated with the appearance of large shallow waterbodies in Asia during the Late Eocene as a result of the fall in the global sea level and the resulting retreat of the epicontinental seas. Four major temporal stages can be recognized in the evolution of the Cenozoic Eurasian anatids communities, without any traceable continuity between particular stages (at the current stage of knowledge). Some recent anatid genera (e.g., Tadorna) first appear in the paleontological record at the level of the early and middle Miocene (17–15 Ma), but temperate faunas of essentially modern ecological composition became widespread only in the late Miocene (9–6 Ma). The details of transitions between various faunistic stages, as well as the origin of modern communities, remain largely unstudied. DOI: 10.1134/S2079086420050096
INTRODUCTION Ducks (family Anatidae s. l. of order Anseriformes) is a rather diverse group of birds that includes about 160 modern species (Dickinson and Remsen, 2013; Hoyo and Collar, 2014). In a broad taxonomic interpretation, the family includes modern Dendrocygninae and a number of fossil subfamilies, such as Romainvilliinae, which are sometimes treated as separate families (see below). Ducks inhabit nearly the entire planet, except Antarctica (one species, Anas georgica, lives on the subantarctic archipelago of Southern Georgia) and, thus, can be considered one of the most characteristic components of modern ecosystems (mainly aquatic and near-water ecosystems). The rich paleontological record of ducks of the modern morphological type (starting from the Oligocene; Mayr, 2017) allows them to be considered a typical group of vertebrates of the Late Cenozoic, along with hominids, horses, and deers from the mammals. For this reason, an understanding of the evolution of this group of birds is of undoubted general biological significance. However, despite their rich fossil record (one of the richest among birds), the evolutionary history of ducks remains poorly studied, which is partly due to the lack of consensus on the phylogeny of modern members of the family and insufficiently developed ideas about the relationships of fossil forms 1 The
article continues the theme of the previous issue of the Journal of General Biology (no. 4, 2019), which contains selected materials of the III International Conference “Contemporary Problems of Biological Evolution,” held on October 16– 20, 2017 at the State Darwin Museum.
(Popovkina and Poyarkov, 2002; Mayr, 2017). Nevertheless, a tremendous breakthrough was made in the last decade, both in the mo
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