Taxonomic status of the extinct Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus meadewaldoi. Canary Oyk

Mitochondrial genes were sequenced from four specimens of the Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus meadewaldoi, an extinct range-restricted taxon of uncertain phylogenetic affinity,. These were compared betweenand compared to African Oystercatcher H. moquini, Eurasian Oystercatcher H. ostralegus, and an old unidentified extralimital ‘black’ oystercatcher specimen from The Gambia. At these loci, H. meadewaldoi was approximately 99.65% identical to multiple Eurasian Oystercatcher samples and in phylogenetic trees including most oystercatcher taxa fell within the range of genetic variation observed in that species. The mystery Gambian bird was resolved as an H. moquini and thus presumably a vagrant. We conclude that H. meadewaldoi was most likely a recently diverged melanistic morph or subspecies of H. ostralegus, though further genomic studies will be required to determine if there has been a period of isolation followed by introgression.