Picidae (2 Viewers)

[Nutcracker]

Not sure that the Japanese pops are raised to species rank. Only the lilfordi and insularis clades should be elevated

That's how I read it too

Interesting to see from Fig.2 that D. major japonicus may also need splitting from D. major major.

 

[pbjosh]

That's how I read it too

Interesting to see from Fig.2 that D. major japonicus may also need splitting from D. major major.

I only glanced through it thus far, but that was what initially jumped out at me. Aside from Owston's WP clearly not being specifically distinct, was the apparently massive polyphyly of D major.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

I notice that no list followed the recommendations of Perktas and Quintero (2013) concerning the phylogeography and taxonomy of Dendrocopos major in which the authors suggest to raise cabanisi, poelzami and japonicus as species, why?

 

[Nutcracker]

I notice that no list followed the recommendations of Perktas and Quintero (2013) concerning the phylogeography and taxonomy of Dendrocopos major in which the authors suggest to raise cabanisi, poelzami and japonicus as species, why?

No-one mentioned it before in this thread, so none of the lists will know about it 🤪

Do you have a citation or link for it please?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

No-one mentioned it before in this thread, so none of the lists will know about it 🤪

Do you have a citation or link for it please?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

We can like now? birdforum turns into facebagram

 

[Nutcracker]

Thanks!

I'd guess their paper wasn't acted on, because they didn't include any D. syriacus or D. darjellensis samples, and therefore couldn't show non-monophyly in addition to their results? This may well change now . . .

 

[Nutcracker]

We can like now? birdforum turns into facebagram

Just a way of saying a quick 'Thank you' before I've looked at the paper

 

[Mysticete]

Thanks!

I'd guess their paper wasn't acted on, because they didn't include any D. syriacus or D. darjellensis samples, and therefore couldn't show non-monophyly in addition to their results? This may well change now . . .

There is also only a single gene sampled, and only a passing mention of any other traits that could suggest splitting up this complex. I tend to be a splitter by nature, and this evidence is even too scant for me to really take seriously until more work is done.

Although I do fully expect somewhere down the line we will see some taxonomic shuffling and splitting of this woodpecker

 

[MJB]

Here the full paper, just sent by Pons himself

I notice from Supplement 1 that for one specimen of lilfordi from Russia (Row 34), the location is given as Krasnodarskiy Kray, but the lat/long supplied (43.50N, 40.19E) places it firmly in Georgia. Pre-glasnost Russia?

 

[l_raty]

I notice from Supplement 1 that for one specimen of lilfordi from Russia (Row 34), the location is given as Krasnodarskiy Kray, but the lat/long supplied (43.50N, 40.19E) places it firmly in Georgia. Pre-glasnost Russia?

In the Burke Museum database, the locality for this specimen is given as "Sochinskiy Rayon; Krasnaya Polyana, 1 km S, 3 km W; 43.5, 40.183."
Красная Поляна is some 20 km due N of the point indicated by the coordinates (and it is, indeed, in Krasnodarskiy Kray, in Russia).
Other latitude values in this database (like the longitude value here) are consistently given with three digits after the decimal point -- maybe something got lost in this "43.5" ?
(E.g., 43.665, 40.183 would be close to Krasnaya Polyana.)

 

[MJB]

In the Burke Museum database, the locality for this specimen is given as "Sochinskiy Rayon; Krasnaya Polyana, 1 km S, 3 km W; 43.5, 40.183."
Красная Поляна is some 20 km due N of the point indicated by the coordinates (and it is, indeed, in Krasnodarskiy Kray, in Russia).
Other latitude values in this database (like the longitude value here) are consistently given with three digits after the decimal point -- maybe something got lost in this "43.5" ?
(E.g., 43.665, 40.183 would be close to Krasnaya Polyana.)

From Google Maps, the forest is more or less contiguous between those two locations and so I think your suggestion is most plausible, Laurent. I tend to check locations that are close to borders after reading a summary by Vladimir Arkhipov et al about the difficulties they had in forming the current Russia Checklist out of the mess of records in the former Soviet Union Checklist!
MJB

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Dryocopus schulzi(i)

Proposal (896) to SACC

Change spelling of Dryocopus schulzi to Dryocopus schulzii

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Stepfanie M. Aguillon, Jennifer Walsh, and Irby J. Lovette. 2021. Extensive hybridization reveals multiple coloration genes underlying a complex plumage phenotype. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288: 20201805.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1805

Abstract:

Coloration is an important target of both natural and sexual selection. Discovering the genetic basis of colour differences can help us to understand how this visually striking phenotype evolves. Hybridizing taxa with both clear colour differences and shallow genomic divergences are unusually tractable for associating coloration phenotypes with their causal genotypes. Here, we leverage the extensive admixture between two common North American woodpeckers—yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers—to identify the genomic bases of six distinct plumage patches involving both melanin and carotenoid pigments. Comparisons between flickers across approximately 7.25 million genome-wide SNPs show that these two forms differ at only a small proportion of the genome (mean FST = 0.008). Within the few highly differentiated genomic regions, we identify 368 SNPs significantly associated with four of the six plumage patches. These SNPs are linked to multiple genes known to be involved in melanin and carotenoid pigmentation. For example, a gene (CYP2J19) known to cause yellow to red colour transitions in other birds is strongly associated with the yellow versus red differences in the wing and tail feathers of these flickers. Additionally, our analyses suggest novel links between known melanin genes and carotenoid coloration. Our finding of patch-specific control of plumage coloration adds to the growing body of literature suggesting colour diversity in animals could be created through selection acting on novel combinations of coloration genes.

 

[Melanie]

The conundrum of an overlooked skeleton referable to Imperial Woodpecker Campephilus imperialis in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring

Abstract

The discovery of an overlooked skeleton of Imperial Woodpecker Campephilus imperialis in the bird collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring (NHMUK) is documented, one of very few known to exist worldwide of this almost certainly extinct species. We present evidence that, on balance of probabilities, it is one of two collected by Alphonse Forrer in 1882 near the settlement of La Ciudad in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango, western Mexico; the whereabouts of the other, which did not come to NHMUK, appears currently unknown. During research into the NHMUK specimen, we demonstrated that the supposed Imperial Woodpecker skull held in the collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, must in fact be that of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker C. principalis.

The conundrum of an overlooked skeleton referable to Imperial Woodpecker Campephilus imperialis in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club contains research on all major aspects of ornithology, particularly new species, or regions incompletely known.

bioone.org

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Dryocopus schulzi(i)

Proposal (896) to SACC

Change spelling of Dryocopus schulzi to Dryocopus schulzii

DID NOT PASS

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Abhirami, C., C. Niranjana, and J. Praveen. 2021. An analysis of Greater Flameback Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus vocalisations and their taxonomic and biogeographic implications. India Birds, published online 26 August 2021.
In Press | Indian Birds

Abstract
Abstract: The Greater Flameback Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus is a woodland species that is distributed in the humid forests of the Oriental Region. We analysed the contact calls, flight calls, and drumrolls of three taxa—C. guttacristatus socialis of the Western Ghats, C. stricklandi of Sri Lanka, and C. guttacristatus sensu stricto of the Himalayas and South-east Asia. We found that socialis had markedly different contact and flight calls compared to guttacristatus sensu stricto; in some respects more marked than those of stricklandi to guttacristatus. A preliminary analysis of available drumrolls also indicated socialis to be very distinct. This divergence in vocalisation coupled with already well-known modest differences in plumage and morphometrics suggests a distinct lineage that argues for a species status for socialis as ‘Malabar Flameback’.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Alexander Llanes-Quevedo, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Luis A. Sánchez-González, Vicente J. Castillo-Chora, Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza. The tangled evolutionary history of a long-debated Mesoamerican taxon: the Velazquez Woodpecker (Melanerpes santacruzi, Aves: Picidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
In Press, Journal Pre-proof, Available online 18 February 2022 Redirecting

Abstract:

The Velazquez Woodpecker Melanerpes santacruzi is a highly polytypic species distributed from east-central Mexico to northern Nicaragua. The ample variation in body size, barring of the plumage, and the coloration of nasal tufts, neck, and belly have fueled debates about the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the species; however, the processes generating these patterns of variation and the underlying population dynamics throughout the species’ distribution remain poorly understood. Here, we employed reduced representation genome sequencing (NextRAD) and Ecological Niche Modeling methods to test the distinctiveness of the Velazquez Woodpecker based on this new set of genomic data and analyze the correspondence of the genetic structure and ecological differentiation with phenotypic variation and geographic distribution. From phylogenetic and demographic analyses including the Golden-Fronted (M. aurifrons) and Red-bellied Woodpecker (M. carolinus), we obtained results congruent with previous molecular phylogenies. The clades of M. santacruzi and M. carolinus-M. aurifrons are reciprocally monophyletic, although the sister group relationship of M. aurifrons is ambiguous. Using genetic and ecological analyses, we found that the species is structured into three genetically and ecologically differentiated groups comprising the subspecies (1) M. s. santacruzi, (2) M. s. dubius and (3) M. s. grateloupensis-polygrammus-veraecrucis. These groups diverged recently, with two splits between 250-150,000 years ago, and show a significant genetic admixture among them, especially in their current contact zones. Ecological and demographic models suggest the existence of intermittent areas of sympatry and connectivity among populations of M. santacruzi since the Last Interglacial period. We also found evidence of bi-directional gene flow between the species M. aurifrons and the nearby populations of M. santacruzi (M. s. grateloupensis), along the Sierra Madre Oriental in northeastern Mexico. Gene flow seems to be uneven, with prevalence of movement in the direction from M. aurifrons to M. s. grateloupensis.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Manuel Schweizer, Qindong Tang, Reto Burri, Sergei V. Drovetski, Hugo Robles, Kristof Zyskowski, Sargis Aghayan, Marko Rakovic, Gilberto Pasinelli.
Deep genome‐wide phylogeographic structure indicates cryptic diversity in the Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius). Ibis,
First Published: 17 February 2022, https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13054

Abstract:

Deep phylogeographic structure in mitochondrial DNA not reflected in morphological variation has been uncovered in a number of species over the past few decades. However, inferred phylogeographic structure solely based on mitochondrial DNA can be misleading and might not reflect the true history of evolutionary lineages. Consequently, such cases should be further investigated based on genome-wide data. One of these examples is provided by the Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocoptes medius, a non-migratory habitat specialist associated with old deciduous forests of the Western Palearctic. It displays strong genetic divergence in mitochondrial DNA between Asian and European populations despite only slight variation in morphology between them. Here, we found a clear genomic divergence between Asian and European populations that is consistent with mitochondrial divergence patterns. As revealed by isolation by distance analyses, this differentiation in two lineages was not merely an effect of geography. Genomic population structure indicates that both the Asian and European lineages might each have been separated in more than one refugium during the last glacial maximum. The Middle Spotted Woodpecker might represent a case of cryptic diversity throughout its distribution range, as has been previously found for other taxa across the tree of life. However, we also found footprints of gene flow from the Asian into the European populations, suggesting at least limited introgression upon secondary contact. Processes and mechanisms that might prevent lineage fusion between the morphologically cryptic but genetically divergent lineages of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker need to be further investigated especially in the area of potential secondary contact.

 

[njlarsen]

Alexander Llanes-Quevedo, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Luis A. Sánchez-González, Vicente J. Castillo-Chora, Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza. The tangled evolutionary history of a long-debated Mesoamerican taxon: the Velazquez Woodpecker (Melanerpes santacruzi, Aves: Picidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
In Press, Journal Pre-proof, Available online 18 February 2022 Redirecting

Abstract:

The Velazquez Woodpecker Melanerpes santacruzi is a highly polytypic species distributed from east-central Mexico to northern Nicaragua. The ample variation in body size, barring of the plumage, and the coloration of nasal tufts, neck, and belly have fueled debates about the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the species; however, the processes generating these patterns of variation and the underlying population dynamics throughout the species’ distribution remain poorly understood. Here, we employed reduced representation genome sequencing (NextRAD) and Ecological Niche Modeling methods to test the distinctiveness of the Velazquez Woodpecker based on this new set of genomic data and analyze the correspondence of the genetic structure and ecological differentiation with phenotypic variation and geographic distribution. From phylogenetic and demographic analyses including the Golden-Fronted (M. aurifrons) and Red-bellied Woodpecker (M. carolinus), we obtained results congruent with previous molecular phylogenies. The clades of M. santacruzi and M. carolinus-M. aurifrons are reciprocally monophyletic, although the sister group relationship of M. aurifrons is ambiguous. Using genetic and ecological analyses, we found that the species is structured into three genetically and ecologically differentiated groups comprising the subspecies (1) M. s. santacruzi, (2) M. s. dubius and (3) M. s. grateloupensis-polygrammus-veraecrucis. These groups diverged recently, with two splits between 250-150,000 years ago, and show a significant genetic admixture among them, especially in their current contact zones. Ecological and demographic models suggest the existence of intermittent areas of sympatry and connectivity among populations of M. santacruzi since the Last Interglacial period. We also found evidence of bi-directional gene flow between the species M. aurifrons and the nearby populations of M. santacruzi (M. s. grateloupensis), along the Sierra Madre Oriental in northeastern Mexico. Gene flow seems to be uneven, with prevalence of movement in the direction from M. aurifrons to M. s. grateloupensis.

I am curious to hear more about the hybrid zone; how wide, etc?
Niels