Dromadidae - closer to Laridae or Glareolidae?
Lots of data, long time to bootstrap...
Available data:
GenBank: 19 sequences of various genes.
BOLD: 2 public barcodes.
Among the GenBank sequences are 13 nuclear marker sequences from Hackett et al. 2008 [
pdf], one from Yuri et al. 2008 [
pdf] and one from Braun et al. 2011 [
pdf]), as well as three mitochondrial sequences (12S, cyt-b, ND2) and a RAG1 sequence from Pereira & Baker 2010 [
pdf]. Hackett et al. 2008 did not include any Glareolidae; in their data set
Dromas was sister to
Larus, and these two sister to
Turnix. Yuri et al. 2008 and Braun et al. 2011 do not help to answer the question either. Pereira & Baker 2010 found
Dromas closer to Glareolidae, but support was low and this result was lost when they combined their molecular data with morphological data.
Among Hackett et al.'s markers, two have also been sequenced for members of Glareolidae:
myo (myoglobin) (sequences by Ericson et al. 2003 [
pdf]) and
βFib7 (sequence by Fain & Houde 2004 [
pdf]). These two genes, when analyzed in isolation, suggested
Dromas closer to Glareolidae -- with myo, the support was low (in a 200-replicate analysis, I got 60.5% BS); with βFib7, it was strong (in a 200-replicate analysis, I got 94.5% BS). RAG1 alone grouped
Dromas and Glareolidae with 75% BS; mtDNA (cox1 + cytb + 12S rRNA + ND2) produced a trichotomy (Glareolidae;
Dromas; all other Lari).
I have joined a tree resulting from a multigene (cox1 sequences, completed with 12S, cytb, ND2, RAG1, myo and βFib7 sequences as available in GenBank; data set partitioned by gene, and by position for coding genes [15 partitions in total; 3 for each coding gene (cox1, cytb, ND2, RAG1), 1 for the rRNA, 1 for each intron (myo, βFib)]) analysis of Lari, with
Turnix and five Scolopaci as outgroups. There I recover
Dromas as sister to Glareolidae with 87.5% BS, so my bet will go for that.
Note also that
Procelsterna is nested in
Anous (strong support, but the former is only represented by a cox1 sequence), and the very strong support given to (
Larus +
Chroicocephalus sensu BOURC TSC) (=
Larus sensu AERC TAC), with the Saunders's Gull basal to this clade.