Relations
The relations of this species among the waterfowl is unresolved. It is morphologically close to shelducks, and particularly the South American sheldgeese, which have highly similar courtship displays. However, mitochondrial DNA sequence analyses of the cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 genes indicates that it might belong to a very distinct and ancient "duck" clade, together with Hartlaub's Duck, another African species of uncertain affinities. The wing color pattern, a good morphological indicator of evolutionary relationships in waterfowl, is similar in these two species, and very different from any other waterfowl.
Read more about this topic: Blue-winged Goose
Famous quotes containing the word relations:
“I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Our relations to each other are oblique and casual.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the mythic schema of all relations between men and women, man proposes, and woman is disposed of.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)