An ‛Aukward’ Tale: A Genetic Approach to Discover the Whereabouts of the Last Great Auks

Abstract

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.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Band-rumped Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma castro)

“…Gallus gallus was selected as the outgroup. The resulting tree shows similar relationships to previous studies (Nishibori et al 2003;Yamamoto et al 2005;Slack et al 2006;Slack et al 2007;Gibb et al 2013;Lounsberry et al 2015;Han et al 2016;Eo and An 2016;Kim and Park 2016;Yang et al 2016;Thomas et al 2017;Zhang et al 2017).…”

Who, Where, What, Wren? Using Ancient DNA to Examine the Veracity of Museum Specimen Data: A Case Study of the New Zealand Rock Wren (Xenicus gilviventris)

“…No Xenicus specimens had been analyzed within this laboratory prior to this study. Ancient DNA extractions followed the methodology of Thomas et al (2017) whereby toepad samples were minced using a scalpel blade and incubated at 55 • C overnight within 1 mL of the extraction buffer of Gilbert et al (2007); followed by purification and elution of DNA according to Dabney et al (2013). Negative DNA extraction controls (i.e., reagents only, no sample) were processed alongside museum specimens (∼1 control per 7 specimens), and subjected to the same PCR conditions detailed below (as were negative PCR controls).…”

Using Ancient DNA Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating to Determine the Provenance of an Unusual Whaling Artifact

“…However, collection locality is generally more difficult to establish. Ancient DNA analysis can be used to identify the species-of-origin and collection locality using phylogeographic analysis of genetic material recovered from the unknown specimen (Hartnup et al, 2011;Bi et al, 2013;Besnard et al, 2015;Thomas et al, 2017;Bastian et al, 2018). Combining specimen genetic data with more traditional sources of evidence, such as archives, specimen labels, and evidence from historical taxidermy can help develop robust predictions of specimen provenance.…”