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Rallidae (1 Viewer)

I've a question on the correct spelling of the scientific name of the extinct Reunion Gallinule.

In the OD by Selys-Longchamps you can clearly read Aptornis cœrulescens. But why is cærulescens now accepted and not cœrulescens?

 
Kirchman, J.J., N.R. McInerney, T.C. Giarla, S.L. Olson, E. Slikas, and R.C. Fleischer (2021)
Phylogeny based on ultra-conserved elements clarifies the evolution of rails and allies (Ralloidea) and is the basis for a revised classification
Ornithology (advance online publication)
doi: 10.1093/ornithology/ukab042

The rails (Family Rallidae) are the most diverse and widespread group in the Gruiformes. Their extensive fossil history, global geographic distribution, and tendency to rapidly evolve flightless species on islands make them an attractive subject of evolutionary studies, but the rarity of modern museum specimens of so many rail species has, until recently, limited the scope of molecular phylogenetics studies. As a result, the classification of rails remains one of the most unsettled among major bird radiations. We extracted DNA from museum specimens of 82 species, including 27 from study skins collected as long ago as 1875, and generated nucleotide sequences from thousands of homologous ultra-conserved elements (UCEs). Our phylogenetic analyses, using both concatenation and multispecies coalescent approaches, resulted in well-supported and highly congruent phylogenies that resolve the major lineages of rails and reveal several currently recognized genera to be polyphyletic. A fossil-calibrated time tree is well-resolved and supports the hypothesis that rails split into 2 major lineages (subfamilies Himantornithinae and Rallinae) ~34 mya, but clade age estimates have wide confidence intervals. Our results, combined with results of other recently published phylogenomics studies of rails and other Gruiformes, form the basis for a proposed classification of the Rallidae that recognizes 40 genera in 9 tribes.
 
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Kirchman, J.J., N.R. McInerney, T.C. Giarla, S.L. Olson, E. Slikas, R.C. Fleischer (2021)
Phylogeny based on ultra-conserved elements clarifies the evolution of rails and allies (Ralloidea) and is the basis for a revised classification
Ornithology (advance online publication)
doi: 10.1093/ornithology/ukab042

The rails (Family Rallidae) are the most diverse and widespread group in the Gruiformes. Their extensive fossil history, global geographic distribution, and tendency to rapidly evolve flightless species on islands make them an attractive subject of evolutionary studies, but the rarity of modern museum specimens of so many rail species has, until recently, limited the scope of molecular phylogenetics studies. As a result, the classification of rails remains one of the most unsettled among major bird radiations. We extracted DNA from museum specimens of 82 species, including 27 from study skins collected as long ago as 1875, and generated nucleotide sequences from thousands of homologous ultra-conserved elements (UCEs). Our phylogenetic analyses, using both concatenation and multispecies coalescent approaches, resulted in well-supported and highly congruent phylogenies that resolve the major lineages of rails and reveal several currently recognized genera to be polyphyletic. A fossil-calibrated time tree is well-resolved and supports the hypothesis that rails split into 2 major lineages (subfamilies Himantornithinae and Rallinae) ~34 mya, but clade age estimates have wide confidence intervals. Our results, combined with results of other recently published phylogenomics studies of rails and other Gruiformes, form the basis for a proposed classification of the Rallidae that recognizes 40 genera in 9 tribes.
Yeeeees !!!
 
Seems like an argument could be made for treating Himantornithinae as a family level taxon, given that this initial divergence seems older than the divergence between finfoots and flufftails?
 
Seems like an argument could be made for treating Himantornithinae as a family level taxon, given that this initial divergence seems older than the divergence between finfoots and flufftails?
In the last paper, Himantornis and Gymnocrex are included within the coot/moorhen/crake clade, and not as an independent lineage sister to the two other subfamilies (sensu Garcia-R & al., 2021)
 

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