SAUROPOD TRACKS, BIRD PAPERS etc

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

The following just in. Apologies if some have been reported 
here before...

Padian, K. & Horner, J. R. 2002. Typology versus 
transformation in the origin of birds. _Trends in Ecology & 
Evolution_ 17, 120-124.

Essentially a critique of claims from the Ruben et al camp 
and proposes that arguments about 'reptilian'-style 
physiology/behaviour in non-avian dinosaurs are naïve in 
that they hang on to a 19th century typological approach. 
Some of the points here are those made by Makovicky and 
Dyke in the 'Naive falsification' paper. Good review of 
current thoughts on egg-laying, nesting and brooding 
behaviour.

Day, J. J., Upchurch, P., Norman, D. B., Gale, A. S. & 
Powell, H. P. 2002. Sauropod trackways, evolution, and 
behavior. _Science_ 296, 1659.

A Bathonian sauropod trackway site from the White-
Limestone Formation at Ardley Quarry, Oxfordshire, 
reveals 40 subparallel trackways representing both narrow- 
and wide-gauge sauropods. The absence of a hallux 
impression supports ID of the wide-gauge tracks as 
titanosaurian.. thus support for titanosauriform 
diversification by this time. Seeing as two kinds of 
sauropods are seen walking side by side, this is also 
evidence for mixed-species herds. Incidentally this is the 
same site that produced the running theropod track reported 
in _Nature_ earlier this year (Day et al., _Nature_ 415, 494).

Clegg, S. M. & Owens, I. P. F. 2002. The 'island rule' in 
birds: medium body size and its ecological 
explanation._Proc. R. Soc. London_ B 269, 1359-1365.

Birds are traditionally not thought to follow the 'island rule' 
as mammals do (viz: big species produce dwarf 
descendants, small species produce giant descendants) and 
instead just grow bigger bills. Clegg et al test this and find 
that previous studies were passerine-biased (Grant's work 
proved highly influential) - 80% of comparisons in previous 
studies were based on passerine species (which shows the 
bias as passerines 'only' constitute 59% of extant bird 
species). When things are evened out, the island rule _is_ 
observed, and both in body size and bill length. Multiple 
ecological factors must contribute to adoption of the island 
rule and this study paves the way for their recognition.

Edwards, S. V. & Boles, W. E. 2002. Out of Gondwana: the 
origin of passerine birds. _Trends in Ecology & Evolution_ 
17, 347-349.

Two recent studies of passerines - Barker et al. (2002, 
_Proc. R. Soc. Lond._ B 269, 295-308) and Ericson et al. 
(2002, _Proc. R. Soc. Lond._ B 269, 235-241) - agree that 
NZ wrens (acanthisittids) are the sister-group to all other 
passerines and that Corvida is paraphyletic with respect to 
Passerida. Edwards and Boles discuss the biogeographical 
implications of this as - combined with the evidence from 
the fossil record and the established Gondwanan ancestry of 
suboscines - it emphasises a Gondwanan origin for 
Passeriformes and, more specifically, supports eastern 
Gondwana (Australia and New Guinea) as the centre of 
origin for passerines. As they argue, this also supports a 
Cretaceous origin for passerines and thus for other 
neornithine clades.

Incidentally there are some really funny things happening in 
passerine biogeography (if you have been following 
Michael Heads' recent papers on bowerbirds and BsOP): 
namely that, firstly, vicariance is the main factor and, 
secondly, that the disjunct distribution of species groups 
indicates substantially older diversifications than those we 
might prefer based on other lines of evidence. And while 
birds may be supreme dispersalists, there is every indication 
that some groups are sedentary to the absurd.

de Klerk, H. M., Crowe, T. M., Fjeldsa, J. & Burgess, N. D. 
2002. Patterns of species richness and narrow endemism of 
terrestrial bird species in the Afrotropical region. _J. Zool._ 
256, 327-342.

Preliminary versions of this study have been produced by 
Burgess et al. (1997, _Bull. ABC_ 4, 93-98; 2000, 
_Ostrich_ 71, 286-290). Areas of greatest species richness 
in the Afrotropical region largely correlate with areas of 
narrow endemism and are the mountains and mountain-
lowland complexes of the East African rift system, the 
Cameroon-Bamenda Highland system and the Eastern Arc 
mountains. However, some areas of highest narrow 
endemism are _not_ species richness peaks. The former are 
historically of great biogeographical importance as they are 
so-called 'species pumps'. Recognition of the difference 
between peaks of species richness and narrow endemism 
obviously has implications for conservation priorities.

Pisani et al's recent dinosaur supertree paper cited pretty 
much all of the papers on supertrees produced by Olaf 
Bininda-Emonds and his team (as did Walsh and Naish 
2002 I suppose). The latest paper to be produced by the 
team is..

Jones, K. E., Purvis, A., MacLarnon, A., Bininda-Emonds, 
O. R. P. & Simmons, N. B. 2002. A phylogenetic supertree 
of the bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera). _Biol. Rev._ 77, 223-
259.

If I attempt a summary this email will take more time than I 
have. Mega and microbats are monophyletic, microbat 
paraphyly not supported.

Finally, for those interested in cetaceans, a third specimen 
of Longman's beaked whale has just been reported from 
South Africa. DNA studies confirm that two previous South 
African carcasses (one from the early 1980s, the other 1992) 
were also of this species (recall that it is otherwise known 
only from three skulls). 

What the hell, may as well report these...

Dalebout, M. L., Mead, J. G., Baker, C. S., Baker, A. N. & 
van Helden, A. L. 2002. A new species of beaked whale 
_Mesoplodon perrini_ sp. n. (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) 
discovered through phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial 
DNA sequences.  _Marine Mammal Science_ 18, 577-608.

van Helden, A. L., Baker, A. N., Dalebout, M. L., Reyes, J. 
C., Van Waerebeek, K. & Baker, C. S. 2002. Resurrection 
of _Mesoplodon traversii_ (Gray, 1874), senior synonym of 
_M. bahamondi_ Reyes, Van Waerebeek, Cárdenas and 
Yáñez, 1995 (Cetacea: Ziphiidae).  _Marine Mammal
Science_ 18, 609-621.

Boo-hoo, goodbye _M. bahamondi_. I still say Dalebout et 
al. should have cited...

Naish, D. 1998. A possible new species of ziphiid whale. 
_The Cryptozoology Review_ 3 (2), 25-28.

-- 
Darren Naish
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth UK, PO1 3QL

email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
tel: 023 92846045