The largest anthropogenic extinction events during the Holocene occurred on Pacific islands, where thousands of bird populations were lost. Although ancient DNA approaches have become widely used to monitor the genetic variability of species through time, few studies have been conducted to identify the potential cryptic loss of genetic and species diversity within Pacific seabird species. Here we used heterochronous sampling of mitochondrial DNA (Cytochrome b) in the genus Pterodroma from Norfolk Island to quantify potential loss of genetic and species diversity. We particularly focused on the providence petrel P. solandri whose main breeding colony (~ 1,000,000 breeding pairs) became extirpated from Norfolk Island following European settlement circa 1800. We sampled subfossil bones consistent with Pterodroma spp. from Norfolk Island, and performed genetic comparisons with other populations of P. solandri and congeneric species. The majority of subfossil Norfolk Island individuals exhibited the most common mitochondrial haplotype from Lord Howe Island P. solandri, suggesting no appreciable loss of genetic variation as a consequence of the Norfolk Island extirpation. Our findings provide an example where a large seabird population was rapidly extirpated by humans without loss of species-level genetic diversity, probably as a consequence of high connectivity with other populations. However, past connectivity was insufficient to prevent the extirpation itself, which has conservation implications for predicting the resilience of threatened seabirds. In contrast, ancient DNA analyses of smaller Pterodroma bones from Norfolk Island indicate the loss of a second species, potentially P. pycrofti, P. brevipes or another closely related, possibly undescribed taxon, from the Tasman Sea.

全新世期间最大的人为灭绝事件发生在太平洋岛屿，那里有成千上万的鸟类丧生。尽管古老的DNA方法已被广泛用于监视物种随时间的遗传变异性，但很少进行研究来确定太平洋海鸟物种内遗传和物种多样性的潜在隐性损失。在这里，我们使用了来自诺福克岛的翼手蕨属中线粒体DNA（细胞色素b）的异时采样来量化遗传和物种多样性的潜在丧失。我们特别关注天意海燕P. solandri在大约1800年欧洲定居后，其主要繁殖种群（约1,000,000个繁殖对）从诺福克岛灭绝了。我们取样了与翼手龙属一致的亚化石骨。来自诺福克岛（Norfolk Island），并与其他P. solandri种群和同类物种进行了遗传比较。大多数化石下的诺福克岛个体表现出豪勋爵岛P. solandri最常见的线粒体单倍型，表明诺福克岛灭绝没有明显的遗传变异损失。我们的发现提供了一个例子，说明大量海鸟种群被人类迅速灭绝而不会丧失物种级遗传多样性，这可能是由于与其他种群之间的高度联系所致。但是，过去的连通性不足以阻止灭绝本身，这对预测受威胁海鸟的复原力具有保护意义。相比之下，规模较小的古DNA分析Pterodroma从诺福克岛骨头指示第二物种的丧失，可能P. pycrofti，P.短柄或其他密切相关的，可能未描述的类群，从塔斯曼海。