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Trogoniformes (1 Viewer)

Peter Kovalik

Well-known member
Slovakia
Peter A. Hosner, Frederick H. Sheldon, Haw Chuan Lim and Robert G. Moyle. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Asian trogons (Aves: Trogoniformes) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Article in press.
Abstract
 
Esther Quintero and Alejandro Espinosa de los Monteros, 2011. Microanatomy and evolution of the nanostructures responsible for iridescent coloration in Trogoniformes (Aves). Organism diversity and evolution. Volume 11, Number 3, 237-248, DOI: 10.1007/s13127-011-0049-z
Abstract

...The Asiatic Harpactes lineage formed the sister clade to the
New World trogons, while the African Apaloderma was the
most basal genus and sister to the former two genera
combined. Within the New World clade, quetzals (Pharomachrus
spp.) + Euptilotis neoxenus were located at the
base as sister to the other two genera (Priotelus and
Trogon). The core of the phylogeny was formed by the
genus Trogon. This genus was divided in three subclades...
 
ORNELAS, J. F., GONZÁLEZ, C. and ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS, A. (2009), Uncorrelated evolution between vocal and plumage coloration traits in the trogons: a comparative study. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22: 471–484. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01679.x
Abstract
PDF
 
Harpactes whiteheadi

Paul van Els, Vivien L. Chua, Ryan C. Burner, Mustafa Abdul Rahman, Frederick H. Sheldon. Notes on the life history of Harpactes whiteheadi (Aves: Trogonidae), with a description of the juvenile plumage. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Volume 64, pp. 76–78.

[pdf]
 
Trogon rufus

J. K. Dickens, 2015. Taxonomy of Trogon rufus (Gmelin, 1788) and Amazonian ring-shaped clinal variation. Dissertação de Mestrado.

Abstract:

We reviewed the taxonomy of the Trogon rufus species-complex under the premises of the Biological Species Concept. Putative taxonomic units, breaks and transition zones, were visualised by heatmaps and isophenes (phenotypic contour lines) of the colour, barring, morphometric and song characters and tested by discriminant function analyses. Colourmetric data were obtained via spectrometry and barring patterns analysed via high quality digital photographs. We found four distinct biological species. Trogon chrysochloros Pelzeln 1856 from the Atlantic Forest with its denser and blacker undertail and wing covert barring, larger size and faster, generally higher song with more notes. Its upperparts vary from bluer to more coppery-green with increasing altitude. The bill is also relatively smaller and more serrated, linked to a diet that consists almost exclusively of large arthropods, making it the most insectivorous new world Trogon species yet known, which may account for its relative rarity compared to other Trogonids with which it is sympatric. Trogon tenellus Cabanis 1862, from Central America, and Trogon cupreicauda Chapman 1914 from the Chocó-Magdalena provide a classic case of typical biological species, coming into contact in the extreme NW Chocó Province, Colombia, but without intermediate forms. T. tenellus is identified by its blue to blue-green uppertail, blue or grey eye-rings, grey tarsi and song with 2-4 notes, longer note duration and greater change in peak and high frequencies between the intro note and loudsong. This contrasts with the shiny olive-green to coppery green uppertails, yellow eye-ring, usually olive tarsi, brown wash on the undertail of females and song with 6-8 notes of shorter duration and little change in frequency between the intro note and loudsong of T. cupreicauda. T. cupreicauda varies clinally from generally bluer- to more coppery-green plumage and from thicker to thinner black bars in a gradient from the Pacific coast on the border with Ecuador to the Magdalena Valley. The greater difference in colour and barring relative to T. tenellus in the region they come into contact provides possible evidence of character displacement as a result of the competitive exclusion between these two species, maintaining their parapatric distributions. The Amazonian population belongs to a single species, Trogon rufus Gmelin 1788, but with two highly distinct forms that we designate as Trogon rufus rufus in the Guiana Shield and Trogon rufus sulphureus in S & W Amazonia, for which Todd's amazonicus is synonymised. They are morphologically and, to a lesser extent, vocally distinct across the lower Rio Negro and matrix of highland and open habitats of the Rio Branco basin but show limited character exchange between the 52-58th parallels west on the southern bank of the Amazon, centred around the Rio Arapiuns on the left bank of mouth of the Tapajos. We postulate that this is the result of secondary contact as a consequence of shifts in the course of the main channel of the Amazon River at times of lower sea levels during the Plio-Pleistocene. T .r. sulphureus is identified by a typically coppery uppertail with subterminal tailband of greener hue, yellow eye-ring, low barring density and broad black bars of the undertail and wing-coverts barring with and lack of a pectoral band. They are also sometimes distinguishable in song by a higher frequency introduction note and/or more pronounced descending modulation across the loudsong. This varies clinally on a west-east gradient, from strong-coppery to shiny olive-green uppertails with more to less distinct subterminal tailbands, diminishing black bar widths with corresponding increasing density and decreasing intro note low frequency. T. r. rufus have green uppertails, blue eye-rings, presence or absence of a white pectoral band and denser undertail and wing panel barring with thinner black bars. These characters were shown to change as a function of geographic distance between specimens of sulphureus and rufus, connected via the 'Arapiuns contact zone', suggesting isolation by distance. This is reminiscent of a ring species pattern and two specimens with a possible mixture of characters were indeed found from the upper Rio Negro and in Pantepui, where T. r. rufus and T. r. sulphureus would be expected to come into contact, effectively 'closing the ring'. Whether Trogon rufus constitutes a valid ring species requires further testing, preferably including molecular characters, but this clearly illustrates that the distinction between clinal variation and ring-species is a matter of degree, not kind, with the formation of the ring-species necessarily passing through a clinal stage with no overlap between terminal taxa. We therefore propose the concept of a loop species, where the terminal forms do not overlap but are connected via a series of intergrading populations. It seems likely that such patterns are more widespread in Amazonia than presently known due to the propensity for clinal variation and parapatric speciation lended by its massive geographical extent and abundance of biogeographical semi-permeable barriers. With regards to the population from the Pernambuco Center of Endemism, the few records suggest that it is a valid taxonomic unit. It has the unique combination of a song very similar to T. r. sulphureus due to the high introduction note frequency and pronounced descent in frequencies across the loudsong, with a corresponding widening range but moderately large size, serrated bill and blue eye-ring but this certainly requires confirmation. This requires urgent attention, as the remnant population is very small and localised, recorded only from the Murici municipality, Alagoas.
 
Carl H. Oliveros, Michael J. Andersen, Peter A. Hosner, William M. Mauck III, Frederick H. Sheldon, Joel Cracraft, Robert G. Moyle. Rapid Laurasian diversification of a pantropical bird family during the Oligocene‐Miocene transition. Ibis, Accepted article.

Abstract:

Disjunct, pantropical distributions are a common pattern among avian lineages, but disentangling multiple scenarios that can produce them requires accurate estimates of historical relationships and timescales. Here, we clarify the biogeographical history of the pantropical avian family of trogons (Trogonidae) by re‐examining their phylogenetic relationships and divergence times with genome‐scale data. We estimated trogon phylogeny by analysing thousands of ultraconserved element (uce) loci from all extant trogon genera with concatenation and coalescent approaches. We then estimated a time frame for trogon diversification using MCMCTree and fossil calibrations, after which we performed ancestral area estimation using BioGeoBEARS. We recover the first well‐resolved hypothesis of relationships among trogon genera. Trogons comprise three clades, each confined to one of three biogeographical regions: Africa, Asia, and the Neotropics, with the African clade sister to the others. These clades diverged rapidly during the Oligocene‐Miocene transition. Our biogeographical analyses identify a Eurasian origin for stem trogons and a crown clade arising from ancestors broadly distributed across Laurasia and Africa. The pantropical ranges of trogons are relicts of a broader Afro‐Laurasian distribution that was fragmented across Africa, Asia and the New World in near coincident fashion during the Oligocene‐Miocene transition by global cooling and changing habitats along the Beringian Land Bridge and North Africa.
 
Carl H. Oliveros, Michael J. Andersen, Peter A. Hosner, William M. Mauck III, Frederick H. Sheldon, Joel Cracraft, Robert G. Moyle. Rapid Laurasian diversification of a pantropical bird family during the Oligocene‐Miocene transition. Ibis, Accepted article.

Abstract:

The article is now 'free access'.

See also this blog-post about it:

Ottenburghs, J. (21 March 2019). Where did the trogons come from? BOU Blog.
 
What is Trogon gigas Vieillot (pic & text at BHL), please?

Tried searching online but I just get hundreds of fine art dealers selling prints of the painting, no taxonomic or current ID info anywhere :C
 
What is Trogon gigas Vieillot (pic & text at BHL), please?

Tried searching online but I just get hundreds of fine art dealers selling prints of the painting, no taxonomic or current ID info anywhere :C
A dubious species that nobody appears to have seen except Levaillant ?

The original source of all the published info seems to be: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47773814
The OD of the scientific name is: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/18035440
The most "current" info may be the footnote in: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8327235
 
What is Trogon gigas Vieillot (pic & text at BHL), please?

Tried searching online but I just get hundreds of fine art dealers selling prints of the painting, no taxonomic or current ID info anywhere :C

The text from Nutty's link, - Giant Trogon from Java, doesn't look like any currently known species to me?

'TROGON GIGAS, Vidii.
Giant Trog*on.
“ T. Supra Jiavescente-viridis, nitens ; pectore, corpore subtus albis ; rostro Jiavo ; pedibus
Juscis”
“ Head, throat, neck, upper surface, scapularies, rump and upper tail-coverts shining golden
green ; chest and under surface white ; tail golden green above, whitish grey beneath ;
centre of the wing finely rayed across with blackish green and white, the remainder of the
wing brownish black ; bill yellow ; feet brown.”
“ Le Grand Couroucou a ventre blanc de Java, ou le Couroucou geant, Le Vaill. Hist. Nat. des
Couroucous, PI. 12.”
“ Xe Couroucou geant, T. Gigas, Vieill. 2nd Edit. duNouv. Diet. dHist. Nat. tom. 8. p. 315.
Vieill. Tab. Ency. et Meth. troisieme partie, p. 1359.
This species, like the T. roseigaster, is so extremely rare that I have never seen an example in any of the
numerous collections I have examined, M. Temminck informs me that he has a specimen as stated by Le
Vaillant, but owing to the Leyden collection being at present inaccessible, he could not favour me with the
loan of it; I have therefore thought it best to copy Le Vaillant’s figure, with a slight alteration as to position,
and subjoin below all that he has said respecting it.
“ This handsome Indian species is not only new, but the largest of its genus. It is 18 inches long from
the top of the head to the extremity of the tail. Its body is twice the size of the largest American species.
“ I have only seen three specimens of this fine species ; one in the collection of M. Carbintus at the Hague,
a second at Rotterdam in the possession of M. Gevers, and another in the large and splendid collection of
my friend M. Temminck at Amsterdam. This individual, from which our figure was taken, was sent along
with many other birds from Java. I have seen a fourth specimen in the Paris Museum ; but as it was in an
imperfect state, it has not as yet been placed in the gallery.”


http://www.zoonomen.net/cit/RI/SP/RIspTroc.html

From the above link, the above, states origin as Java?

http://www.zoonomen.net/cit/RI/SP/Troc/troc00793a.jpg

Image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/7717921144/sizes/o/
 
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What is Trogon gigas Vieillot (pic & text at BHL), please?
...
I hadn't seen, nor heard of, this bird/plate before, but gave it a quick go ...

If I understand the (German) text, correctly Heine (1862–63) [here] list it as a synonym of today's Sumatran Trogon Apalharpactes mackloti (Müller, S, 1836), but I don´t think the Plate looks even similar to that bird. Not at all.

As I see it the live identity of the bird depicted on Gould's Plate* could (possibly) originate in a different part of the world, far away from Java, Indonesia, as in a possible (leusistic?) specimen of the (Mexican) Slaty-tailed Trogon Trogon massena GOULD 1838 [described some pages earlier, here, in the very same book!] ... but if it truly was/is? I simply do not know.

Note that John Gould hadn't seen any specimen/s of the "Trogon gigas" himself, nor did he know the true origin of it (only what he'd been told). Either way; we're looking at a big (giant) trogon, allegedly "18 inches" (45 cm) long. Far bigger than the measurments "33–35 cm", given for the Slaty-tailed one!?

Hopefully of some help?

Björn

PS. Ouups! When I started to type this post there were no replies at all to the question by "Nutcracker", and now both Laurent and Andy turned out quicker! If nothing was added by this my attempt/reply, just ignore it.

____________________________________________________________________
*Copied from the Plate of Levaillant Le Grand Couroucou a ventre blanc de Java, ou le Couroucou géant (here).
Text all in French (which leave me "out of the game").

If truly a Slaty-tailed Trogon I guess Levaillant had no time to finish the (red) colour of the belly!
;)
 
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If I understand the (German) text, correctly Heine (1862–63) [here] list it as a synonym of today's Sumatran Trogon Apalharpactes mackloti (Müller, S, 1836) [...]
No, this is not what they (= Cabanis & Heine) do. What they write of Hapalarpactes (their emended spelling) mackloti is limited to the indented paragraph placed directly under the name -- a set of references, followed by a short Latin diagnosis ending with a range statement ("(Sumatra) --").
Then they make a digression about T. gigas, which is not directly related to/part of the H. mackloti text. This starts with:
Ungefähr hierher wird auch zu stellen sein eine uns wie fast allen Autoren unbekannte Riesenform der Gruppe, deren einziges angeblich ohne Vaterlandsangabe im leydener Museum befindliches Exemplar von Temminck seit Levaillant noch Niemandem wieder gezeigt zu sein scheint; falls überhaupt existirend würde dasselbe Jedenfalls als Typus einer eigenen Gattung anzusprechen sein und mit folgender Synonymie ausgestattet erscheinen:
Not straightforward to translate due to sentence structure very much unlike English, but, more or less :
"About here will also have to be placed a giant form of the group, unknown to us as to almost all authors, the only specimen of which, from Temminck, allegedly to be found in the Leiden museum without any indication of country of origin, appears not to have been shown again to anyone since Levaillant; if it exists at all, this one would have to be treated as the type of its own genus and would appear fitted with the following synonymy:"​
 
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Fair enough, Laurent, I clearly didn't understand it! Thanks for the explanation.

Thereby; Levaillants and Goulds "Trogon gigas" remain a "mystery bird".

Cheers!

Björn (... who really, really ought to learn German ;))
 
Dickens J.K., Bitton P.P., Bravo G. A. & Silveira L.F. (2021). Species limits, patterns of secondary contact and a new species in the Trogon rufus complex (Aves: Trogonidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, in press.


Abstract
The black-throated trogon, Trogon rufus, is a widespread, polytypic species-complex with a convoluted taxonomic history. Here, we integrated morphological, vocal and genetic datasets, including spectral data and digital quantification of barred plumage, to assess and redefine its species limits according to the foremost species concepts. We suggest the recognition of four named and one new species. Trogon tenellus and T. cupreicauda are divergent across Central and South America without geographic overlap or intermediates. Trogon chrysochloros in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil is phenotypically, genetically and ecologically distinct. In Amazonia, Trogon rufus consists of three phenotypically distinct subspecies intergrading with each other in a ring-like formation around central Amazonian rivers. Trogon rufus rufus in the Guiana Shield, Trogon rufus amazonicus in south-eastern Amazonia and Trogon rufus sulphureus in western Amazonia, with contact across the Lower Amazon and Madeira rivers, likely due to secondary contact between incompletely diverged lineages. The unique combination of song, morphology and mtDNA features of an unnamed, isolated population in the Atlantic Forest of north-eastern Brazil resulted in its description as a new species, known only from the type locality and considered here as Critically Endangered, requiring urgent conservation actions.

Full text attached
 

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Dickens J.K., Bitton P.P., Bravo G. A. & Silveira L.F. (2021). Species limits, patterns of secondary contact and a new species in the Trogon rufus complex (Aves: Trogonidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, in press.


Abstract
The black-throated trogon, Trogon rufus, is a widespread, polytypic species-complex with a convoluted taxonomic history. Here, we integrated morphological, vocal and genetic datasets, including spectral data and digital quantification of barred plumage, to assess and redefine its species limits according to the foremost species concepts. We suggest the recognition of four named and one new species. Trogon tenellus and T. cupreicauda are divergent across Central and South America without geographic overlap or intermediates. Trogon chrysochloros in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil is phenotypically, genetically and ecologically distinct. In Amazonia, Trogon rufus consists of three phenotypically distinct subspecies intergrading with each other in a ring-like formation around central Amazonian rivers. Trogon rufus rufus in the Guiana Shield, Trogon rufus amazonicus in south-eastern Amazonia and Trogon rufus sulphureus in western Amazonia, with contact across the Lower Amazon and Madeira rivers, likely due to secondary contact between incompletely diverged lineages. The unique combination of song, morphology and mtDNA features of an unnamed, isolated population in the Atlantic Forest of north-eastern Brazil resulted in its description as a new species, known only from the type locality and considered here as Critically Endangered, requiring urgent conservation actions.

Full text attached
I don't know why but my gut tells me that this new species could only be a subspecies of Trogon chrysochloros
 

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