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| Oceanites barrosi Norambuena, Barros, Jaramillo, Medrano, Gaskin, King, Baird & Hernádez, 2024 |
Abstract
The family Oceanitidae, formerly considered a subfamily of Hydrobatidae, includes all the small storm-petrels of the southern hemisphere. The ancestor-descendent relationships and evolutionary history of one of its genera, Oceanites, have been partially studied, yielding contrasting results. We revised the phylogenetic relationships of this group using Bayesian inference (BI) based on new sequence data of the mitochondrial gene Cytb and linear morphological measurements of all species and five subspecies-level taxa in Oceanites, including a new taxon from the Chilean Andes. Our BI results show that the Oceanites genus is monophyletic and composed of four well-supported clades (posterior probability > 0.95): (1) chilensis; (2) exasperatus; (3) gracilis, pincoyae, and barrosi sp. nov.; and (4) oceanicus and galapagoensis. The species O. chilensis is a basal clade within Oceanites. According to our time-calibrated tree, the split between Oceanites and the other genera in Family Oceanitidae is estimated to be ~35.9 Mya, and the oldest divergence within Oceanites (the split between O. chilensis and other Oceanites) was dated to the early Miocene, around c. 21.3 Mya. The most probable geographic origin of Oceanites is the Southern Ocean. The morphological data suggest continuous size variation between Oceanites taxa, ranging from smallest in gracilis to largest in exasperatus. Based on our phylogenetic hypothesis, and morphological analyses, we suggest elevating to species status the taxa galapagoensis, chilensis, and exasperatus, and we describe a new taxon barrosi sp. nov., thus recognizing a total of seven species within the genus Oceanites.
Aves, evolution, storm-petrels, systematics, taxonomy
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| Phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus Oceanites based on BeAST from Cytb gene. Numbers on nodes are posterior probability values from the Bayesian analysis. outgroups are not shown. Inset illustration Oceanites pincoyae from Handbook of the Birds of the World. |
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| Type specimen of Oceanites barrosi sp. nov., specimen no. LACM 25182, Natural History Museum of los Angeles County uSA, preserved as a study skin: adult female, collected by Rafael Barros Valenzuela in río Blanco, los Andes province, Valparaíso region, Chile (latitude 32°54’32.06”S, longitude 70°18’15.30”W, elevation 1,402 m), on 7 April 1924. |
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| Live individual of Oceanites barrosi sp. nov. captured by Rodrigo Barros in río Blanco, Los Andes province, Valparaíso region, Chile (latitude 32°54’S, longitude 70°18’W, elevation 1,400 m), on 9 January 2022. |
Oceanites barrosi sp. nov.
Andean Storm-Petrel
golondrina de mar andina (Chilean name)
Diagnosis: Typical Oceanites structure with (1) small size (Table S3) with short rounded wings, notably short inner wing, and broadly rounded “hand” compared to Hydrobatidae. Oceanites barrosi sp. nov. wing is, on average, larger than in O. chilensis but smaller than in O. pincoyae. At the same time, its tail and tarsus measurements are smaller than in O. chilensis and larger than in O. pincoyae (Table S3). Noticeably smaller than O. exasperatus and somewhat smaller than O. oceanicus mainly in wing and tail length (Table S3). (2) restricted white tips on the belly, never as extensive as in O. galapagoensis, O. gracilis, or O. pincoyae, but typically not dark-bellied like O. chilensis, O. oceanites, and O. exasperatus. (3) Bold double pale line on underwing due to pale tipping on...
Etymology: The chosen scientific name barrosi refers to Rafael Barros Valenzuela (1890–1972) a Chilean ornithologist who first recorded specimens of Oceanites around the Andean mountains of Aconcagua, Chile. rafael Barros was one of the most prolific ornithologists in Chile during the 20th century, and we name this species in recognition of his work. The holotype specimen was collected by him (lACM 25182) on 7 April 1924.
English name: We propose the name Andean Storm-Petrel due to its unique breeding area. Although a nest has not yet been found, the Andean Storm-Petrel is seen going in and out of high elevation areas during the breeding season, and many recently fledged juveniles have been found in elevations above the city of Santiago (Barros 2017).
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| Wing views of live individuals of Oceanites barrosi sp. nov. captured by rodrigo Barros in río Blanco, los Andes province, Valparaíso region, Chile (latitude 32°54’S, longitude 70°18’W, elevation 1,400 m), on 9 January 2022. The number in the photo identifies the captured specimen. |
Heraldo V. Norambuena, Rodrigo Barros, Álvaro Jaramillo, Fernando Medrano, Chris Gaskin, Tania King, Karen Baird, Cristián E. Hernádez. 2024. Resolving the Conflictive Phylogenetic Relationships of Oceanites (Oceanitidae: Procellariiformes) with the Description of A New Species. Zootaxa. 5486(4); 451-475. DOI: doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5486.4.1
