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Passeriformes (1 Viewer)

Acanthis

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Earth history and the passerine superradiation

Carl H. Oliveros, Daniel J. Field, Daniel T. Ksepka, F. Keith Barker, Alexandre Aleixo, Michael J. Andersen, Per Alström, Brett W. Benz, Edward L. Braun, Michael J. Braun, Gustavo A. Bravo, Robb T. Brumfield, R. Terry Chesser, Santiago Claramunt, Joel Cracraft, Andrés M. Cuervo, Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Travis C. Glenn, Michael G. Harvey, Peter A. Hosner, Leo Joseph, Rebecca T. Kimball, Andrew L. Mack, Colin M. Miskelly, A. Townsend Peterson, Mark B. Robbins, Frederick H. Sheldon, Luís Fábio Silveira, Brian Tilston Smith, Noor D. White, Robert G. Moyle, and Brant C. Faircloth

Abstract

Avian diversification has been influenced by global climate change, plate tectonic movements, and mass extinction events. However, the impact of these factors on the diversification of the hyperdiverse perching birds (passerines) is unclear because family level relationships are unresolved and the timing of splitting events among lineages is uncertain. We analyzed DNA data from 4,060 nuclear loci and 137 passerine families using concatenation and coalescent approaches to infer a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis that clarifies relationships among all passerine families. Then, we calibrated this phylogeny using 13 fossils to examine the effects of different events in Earth history on the timing and rate of passerine diversification. Our analyses reconcile passerine diversification with the fossil and geological records; suggest that passerines originated on the Australian landmass ∼47 Ma; and show that subsequent dispersal and diversification of passerines was affected by a number of climatological and geological events, such as Oligocene glaciation and inundation of the New Zealand landmass. Although passerine diversification rates fluctuated throughout the Cenozoic, we find no link between the rate of passerine diversification and Cenozoic global temperature, and our analyses show that the increases in passerine diversification rate we observe are disconnected from the colonization of new continents. Taken together, these results suggest more complex mechanisms than temperature change or ecological opportunity have controlled macroscale patterns of passerine speciation.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/26/1813206116
 
Earth history and the passerine superradiation

Carl H. Oliveros, Daniel J. Field, Daniel T. Ksepka, F. Keith Barker, Alexandre Aleixo, Michael J. Andersen, Per Alström, Brett W. Benz, Edward L. Braun, Michael J. Braun, Gustavo A. Bravo, Robb T. Brumfield, R. Terry Chesser, Santiago Claramunt, Joel Cracraft, Andrés M. Cuervo, Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Travis C. Glenn, Michael G. Harvey, Peter A. Hosner, Leo Joseph, Rebecca T. Kimball, Andrew L. Mack, Colin M. Miskelly, A. Townsend Peterson, Mark B. Robbins, Frederick H. Sheldon, Luís Fábio Silveira, Brian Tilston Smith, Noor D. White, Robert G. Moyle, and Brant C. Faircloth
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/26/1813206116

"Graueriidae"?
 
Locustelloidea including Acrocephalidae...? (In the suppl. info.)


The former is of Bonaparte 1854 [here], as "Locastelleae" [sic].

Acrocephalinae was introduced by Dresser 1880 [here], I believe. (Not Salvin two years later [here] or Oates three years later [here], both of which were cited by Bock 1994 -- in different parts of his publication -- as sources for that name.). But it takes the priority of Calamoherpinae Bonaparte 1838 [here] (or [here] -- I don't know for sure if a day/month can be put on the latter; this is the source Bock 1994 cited for this name, but he was inconsistent on this issue: he attributed some names that appeared in these two works to one of them, others to the other, without any apparent reason) (type Calamoherpe Boie 1822, placed in the synonymy of Acrocephalus Naumann 1804 well before 1961) under Art. 40.2.1 of the ICZN.

Why not Acrocephaloidea Dresser 1880 (1838) ?
 
Note that they use Scotocercidae instead of Cettiidae
As in H&M4 and Bird families of the world.

(Alström et al 2006, in a work on the phylogeny of Sylvioidea, (re-)proposed Cettiidae, trusting Bock 1994 who had failed to report any earlier use of the name; but they did not give it a diagnosis. Fregin et al 2012 subsequently proposed Scotocercidae and Erythrocercidae in a Code-compliant way. Then it was claimed that Cettiidae was unavailable due to the absence of diagnosis in the 2006 work: it was thus (re-(re-))proposed by Alström, Olsson & Ericson 2014 (in H&M4), but at subfamily rank -- being thought junior to the two 2012 names, one of which was given precedence over the other, and used as the name of a family including the three groups.
Well, unfortunately, you really cannot trust Bock 1994 much. Cettiinae was used by Coues in 1903 (even if somewhat tentatively) and Cettiidae by Chigi in 1912 (without a diagnosis, but none was required back then) -- thus that name had been available long before the above happened, and no (re-(re-))proposal of it in the 21st C was needed at all.)
 
Lil' off topic. In the Coues OD, the genus Phyllobasileus is treated including 2 species (calendula and obscurus). R. I. G. gives also two species : calendula and proregulus. So, what's the correct type species?
 
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Lil' off topic. In the Coues OD, the genus Phyllobasileus is treated including 2 species (calendula and obscurus). R. I. G. gives also two species : calendula and proregulus. So, what's the correct type species?
The author is actually Cabanis [here]. (I.e., Coues' work is not the OD.)

Names introduced like this one by Cabanis (with a single generic name quoted as a synonym and rejected with a "(!)") are always understood as new names for the rejected synonym. (They were always introduced exclusively for reasons of linguistic purism.)
Cabanis included (as noted by Richmond), calendula (in the main text) and proregulus (in a footnote). Blyth had introduced Reguloides in 1847 [here], with Regulus modestus Gould 183x (not sure or the year -- between 1832 and 1837) as its type, i.e., [this], which is a synonym of Motacilla proregulus Pallas. If Phyllobasileus is an emendation of Reguloides Blyth, its type is Regulus modestus Gould as well, irrespective of the species cited by Cabanis.
Subsequently (1853), Cabanis removed calendula from Phyllobasileus, stating that he had erred, that the species was in fact closer to Regulus, and that he placed it in a separate group which he named Corthylio [here]; then he explicitly stated he had put the word Phyllobasileus in the place of the irregularly formed genus name "Reguloides" (!) [here]. (Which is consistent with the above.)

Coues, however, apparently did not interpret the case along these lines, as he treated Phyllobasileus as if its type was calendula. Thus, as if he had overlooked the rejection of the single synonym and/or the inclusion of proregulus in the footnote in the original work.
 
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IOC Incertae Sedis

Earth history and the passerine superradiation

Carl H. Oliveros, Daniel J. Field, Daniel T. Ksepka, F. Keith Barker, Alexandre Aleixo, Michael J. Andersen, Per Alström, Brett W. Benz, Edward L. Braun, Michael J. Braun, Gustavo A. Bravo, Robb T. Brumfield, R. Terry Chesser, Santiago Claramunt, Joel Cracraft, Andrés M. Cuervo, Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Travis C. Glenn, Michael G. Harvey, Peter A. Hosner, Leo Joseph, Rebecca T. Kimball, Andrew L. Mack, Colin M. Miskelly, A. Townsend Peterson, Mark B. Robbins, Frederick H. Sheldon, Luís Fábio Silveira, Brian Tilston Smith, Noor D. White, Robert G. Moyle, and Brant C. Faircloth

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/26/1813206116

IOC Updates Diary April 4

Move Green Hylia and Tit Hylia to new family Hyliidae

Move Grauer’s Warbler from Family incertae sedis to Acrocephalidae
 
Teretistris was a notable omission from this study -- they may have gotten a somewhat different topology for Emberizoidea had they included it.
 
The paper only calls out one family level change - elevation of Hylia/Tit-Hylia to family status. On the other hand the cladograms seem to make lots of changes compared to the list of families in the current major checklists, e.g.
  • it refers to "the family of rockfowl, rockjumpers, and the rail-babbler (Eupetidae)", i.e. it lumps three into one
  • it treats spotted creepers as a family
  • Ditto for piprites (which from memory only Howard & Moore has done lately)
So are the implications of the paper wider than at first appears?
 
So are the implications of the paper wider than at first appears?

For fun (seriously! ;) ) I divided the trees in Figs. 1 and 2 into three rough zones defined by time before present. The first and most recent covered lineages within bird families; the second where it's a judgement call whether a divided lineage represents a family or a subfamily; and thirdly the oldest band where a split lineage represents a family or higher level taxon.
In the last zone there were a few interesting hints that some anciently divided lineages may represent neglected possible future family-level splits.

  • Smithornis (mentioned already by LeNomenclatoriste) - separate family in TiF
  • Schiffornis - representing the Mourners, currently in Tityridae
  • Minivets (Pericrocotus) from Campephagidae
  • Longbills from Melanocharitidae
  • Petroicidae - a very old division represented in the paper by just Petroica & Devioeca unfortunately
  • Eupetidae - surely ought to be Eupetoidea!
  • Stenostiridae - Chelidorhynx & Culicicapa - another ancient divergence
  • Macrosphenidae - yet another old group (superfamily?) of anciently-split lineages. The distinct crombecs at least could be separated. 'Sylviettidae' anyone?
  • Modulatrix from Promeropidae - HBW and TiF treat as separate
 
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Paweł Mackiewicz, Adam Dawid Urantówka, Aleksandra Kroczak, Dorota Mackiewicz . Resolving phylogenetic relationships within Passeriformes based on mitochondrial genes and inferring the evolution of their mitogenomes in terms of duplications. Genome Biology and Evolution, evz209, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz209

Abstract:

Mitochondrial genes are placed on one molecule, which implies that they should carry consistent phylogenetic information. Following this advantage, we present a well-supported phylogeny based on mitochondrial genomes from almost 300 representatives of Passeriformes, the most numerous and differentiated Aves order. The analyses resolved the phylogenetic position of paraphyletic Basal and Transitional Oscines. Passerida occurred divided into two groups, one containing Paroidea and Sylvioidea, while the other, Passeroidea and Muscicapoidea. Analyses of mitogenomes showed four types of rearrangements including a duplicated control region (CR) with adjacent genes. Mapping the presence and absence of duplications onto the phylogenetic tree revealed that the duplication was the ancestral state for passerines and was maintained in early diverged lineages. Next, the duplication could be lost and occurred independently at least four times according to the most parsimonious scenario. In some lineages, two CR copies have been inherited from an ancient duplication and highly diverged, while in others, the second copy became similar to the first one due to concerted evolution. The second CR copies accumulated over twice as many substitutions as the first ones. However, the second CRs were not completely eliminated and were retained for a long time, which suggests that both regions can fulfil an important role in mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analyses based on CR sequences subjected to the complex evolution can produce tree topologies inconsistent with real evolutionary relationships between species. Passerines with two CRs showed a higher metabolic rate in relation to their body mass.
 
Harvey, M.G., G.A. Bravo, S. Claramunt, A.M. Cuervo, G.E. Derryberry, J. Battilana, G.F. Seeholzer, J.S. McKay, B.C. O’Meara, B.C. Faircloth, S.V. Edwards, J. Pérez-Emán, R.G. Moyle, F.H. Sheldon, A. Aleixo, B.T. Smith, R.T. Chesser, L.F. Silveira, J. Cracraft, R.T. Brumfield, and E.P. Derryberry (2020)
The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot
Science 370: 1343–1348
doi: 10.1126/science.aaz6970
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6522/1343

The tropics are the source of most biodiversity yet inadequate sampling obscures answers to fundamental questions about how this diversity evolves. We leveraged samples assembled over decades of fieldwork to study diversification of the largest tropical bird radiation, the suboscine passerines. Our phylogeny, estimated using data from 2389 genomic regions in 1940 individuals of 1287 species, reveals that peak suboscine species diversity in the Neotropics is not associated with high recent speciation rates but rather with the gradual accumulation of species over time. Paradoxically, the highest speciation rates are in lineages from regions with low species diversity, which are generally cold, dry, unstable environments. Our results reveal a model in which species are forming faster in environmental extremes but have accumulated in moderate environments to form tropical biodiversity hotspots.
 

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