The ornithology of the Baudin expedition (1800-1804)

The expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin to Tenerife, Mauritius, Australia, Timor and South Africa in 1800-1804 is fully researched in regard to ornithology. The expedition was government-funded and scientific equipped and had as one of the core activities collecting natural history items. Despite the lack of any diaries or lists documenting the collected birds, no less then 56 % of the 1.055 bird-specimens collected could be identified on species level. Of those which survived, 389 specimens (36,8 %) still exist in European Museums. Not only in Paris but also in 25 other museum collections worldwide as in 23 private collections specimens ended up. These 389 specimens represent the largest intact collections in time from Australia, Mauritius and Timor. For Australia and Timor only to be surpassed (nearly) three decades later. The Baudin expedition became the most successful expedition in regard to ornithology executed up to 1804. Further the research showed the importance of the 1796-98 voyage into the Caribbean, the role of donors, taxidermy in those years and the importance of notes still present in archives in Europe. With the right data now in place, many gaps in knowledge can be filled (type localities, systematics, reconstruction of long-gone landscapes, etc.). History of Scienc

Population genomics of two congeneric Palaearctic shorebirds reveals differential impacts of Quaternary climate oscillations across habitats types

10.1038/s41598-019-54715-9Scientific Reports911817

A new extinct species of Polynesian sandpiper (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae: Prosobonia) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group, and the phylogenetic relationships of Prosobonia

We describe a new species of Polynesian sandpiper from Henderson Island, Prosobonia sauli sp. nov., based on multiple Holocene fossil bones collected during the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition to the Pitcairn Islands (1991–92). Prosobonia sauli is the only species of Prosobonia to be described from bone accumulations and extends the record of known extinct Polynesian sandpipers to four. It is readily differentiated from the extant Tuamotu Sandpiper P. parvirostris in several features of the legs and bill, implying ecological adaptations to different environments. The geographically nearest Prosobonia populations to Henderson Island were found on Mangareva, where it is now extinct. A previous record of a species of Prosobonia from Tubuai, Austral Islands, is here shown to belong to the Sanderling Calidris alba. Our analyses of newly sequenced genetic data, which include the mitochondrial genomes of P. parvirostris and the extinct Tahiti Sandpiper P. leucoptera, confidently resolve the position of Prosobonia as sister-taxon to turnstones and calidrine sandpipers. We present a hypothesis for the timing of divergence between species of Prosobonia and other scolopacid lineages. Our results further provide a framework to interpret the evolution of sedentary lineages within the normally highly migratory Scolopacidae.Vanesa L De Pietri, Trevor H Worthy, R Paul Scofield, Theresa L Cole, Jamie R Wood, Kieren J Mitchell ... et al