Mariana mallard
| Mariana mallard | |
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| The last Mariana mallard drake, a bird of the "superciliosa" morph. | |
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Extinct (1981)
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Genus: | Anas |
| Species: | †A. oustaleti |
| Binomial name | |
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Anas oustaleti Salvadori, 1894 |
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| Former distribution of the Mariana mallard | |
| Synonyms | |
The Mariana mallard or Oustalet's duck (Anas oustaleti) is an extinct type of duck of the genus Anas that was endemic to the Mariana Islands. Its taxonomic status is debated, and it has variously been treated as a full species, a subspecies of the mallard or the Pacific black duck, or sometimes as a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck.
The taxonomic status of the Mariana mallard is disputed, since it resembles an intermediate of the mallard and the Pacific black duck, two closely related allopatric species which frequently hybridise. Its males had two intergrading color morphs, called the "platyrhynchos" and the "superciliosa" types after the species they resembled more. It was first scientifically described by Tommaso Salvadori as full species in the genus Anas, named after its collector, the French zoologist Emile Oustalet. Salvadori suggested it was related to the Pacific black duck. It was previously known to the Chamorro people, who called it ngånga' (palao) in Chamorro, and to the Carolinian people, who called it ghereel'bwel in Carolinian.
After Salvadori, most taxonomists, such as Dean Amadon and Ernst Mayr, considered it a subspecies of the mallard.Yoshimaro Yamashina examined those specimens in Japanese museums in 1948, and decided that the Mariana mallard was an example of hybrid speciation, and was descended from the mallard and the Pacific black duck's Palau subspecies (Anas superciliosa pelewensis). However, no molecular genetic evidence is available to support this hypothesis. Some scientists, such as Jean Delacour, have considered the Mariana mallard a simple hybrid, so it was absent from Delacour's four-volume monograph on the ducks and from the IUCN Red List. If Yamashina's hypothesis is correct, the Mariana mallard would have presumably evolved into near species status in only about ten thousand years.
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