• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Timaliidae (1 Viewer)

So is there any recent papers that advocate splitting out the Sylviidae and recognizing Paradoxornithidae? Or is this a completely novel suggestion by Tif. The tree they have presented certainly doesn't suggest that it needs to be done, since Sylviidae and Paradoxornithidae together still represent a monophyletic group.
 
Philippine 'babblers'

Moyle R, Andersen M, Oliveros C, Steinheimer F, Reddy S (2012). Phylogeny and biogeography of the core babblers (Aves: Timaliidae). Systematic Biology.

Oliveros, Reddy & Moyle (in press). The phylogenetic position of some Philippine "babblers" spans the muscicapoid and sylvioid bird radiations. Mol Phylogenet Evol. [abstract]
 
Not in abstract: "The Sulawesi endemic Malia, which until now was classified in Timaliidae, was also recovered within Locustellidae sister to Megalurus timoriensis with high node support, although we did not have enough sampling in the family to determine its position in more detail."
 
Not in abstract: "The Sulawesi endemic Malia, which until now was classified in Timaliidae, was also recovered within Locustellidae sister to Megalurus timoriensis with high node support, although we did not have enough sampling in the family to determine its position in more detail."

Blimey, wouldn't have expected that!
 
Philippine 'babblers'

Oliveros, Reddy & Moyle (in press). The phylogenetic position of some Philippine "babblers" spans the muscicapoid and sylvioid bird radiations. Mol Phylogenet Evol. [abstract]
Suggests revised English names: 'Bagobo Robin' for Leonardina woodi; 'ground-warblers' for Robsonius spp; and 'plumed warblers' for Micromacronus spp.
 
Not in abstract: "The Sulawesi endemic Malia, which until now was classified in Timaliidae, was also recovered within Locustellidae sister to Megalurus timoriensis with high node support, although we did not have enough sampling in the family to determine its position in more detail."

'Don't know whether they actually got more sequences from Malia than in the still reasonably recent Moyle et al. Syst. Biol. paper...?

GenBank has a complete ND3 (351 bp), and a half ND2 (524 bp), both from this study. (While the recent tree is apparently based on CytB, ND2, ND3, TGF, Fib5, and MUSK.)
ND3 has been sequenced for a couple of Locustellidae spp only, hence is not very useful, but ND2 has a very reasonnable sampling in this family.
The tree in attachment is based on the part of ND2 that has been sequenced for Malia. Based on this, Malia would seem closer to Megalurus timoriensis than the latter is to M. gramineus (and to M. palustris), with rather reasonnable support.

Megalurus gratus...? :eek!:

(Of course it's only 524 bp of mitochondrial DNA, but still...)
 

Attachments

  • nd2-Malia-fragment.consensus.pdf
    6.9 KB · Views: 116
Pfeifer 2013

Pfeifer 2013. Was ist eine Timalie? Faszinierende Vielfalt der Lebensformen und Herausforderung an den Systematiker. What is a Babbler? Fascinating diversity of life strategies and challenge for systematists. Vogelwarte 51(2): 117–126. [In German.]
With about 309 recent species the Babblers (Timaliidae) are the fourth species-richest family of passeriformes. The diversity of life strategies and convergent adaptions have long hindered systematic work in this group. In the last ten years modern molecular genetic methods have led to new insight into the systematics of babblers and allowed a new assessment of the hitherto existing ethologic, morphologic and bioacoustic findings, which had been very incomplete. The study of Babblers will remain exciting in future, especially the coherence of habitat, morphology and behaviour and also the ecological "success" of species. An integrated approach should offer the best prospects.
 
Collar 2011 pdf

Collar 2011. Taxonomic notes on some Asian babblers (Timaliidae). Forktail 27: 100–102.

Follows up from Collar 2006. A partial revision of the Asian babblers (Timaliidae). Forktail 22: 85–112.

  • Rhinocichla [Garrulax] (mitrata) treacheri treated as a species - Collar & Robson 2007 (HBW 12), Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush.

  • Liocichla (phoenicea) ripponi treated as a species - Collar & Robson 2007, Scarlet-faced Liocichla.

  • Jabouilleia [Rimator] naungmungensis treated as a ssp of J danjoui - Collar & Robson 2007, Indochinese Wren-babbler.

  • New ssp of Blue-winged Siva: Siva cyanouroptera wirthi subsp. nov. - Bolaven Plateau, Laos.

  • Reassignment of ssp woodi from Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush Garrulax [Trochalopteron] (erythrocephalus) erythrocephalus to Assam Laughingthrush G [T] (e) chrysopterus - Collar & Robson 2007 (but may change...).
[pdf]
 
Hui Xue, Huabin Zhang, Yongmin Li, Xiaoyou Wu, Peng Yan, and Xiao-Bing Wu. The complete mitochondrial genome of Garrulax cineraceus (Aves, Passeriformes, Timaliidae). Posted online on January 22, 2014. (doi:10.3109/19401736.2013.878917).

Abstract
 
Wu et al

Wu, Colwell, Han, Zhang, Wang, Quan, Zhang, Song, Qu & Lei (in press). Understanding historical and current patterns of species richness of babblers along a 5000-m subtropical elevational gradient. Global Ecol Biogeogr. [abstract] [supp info]
 
Alcippe morrisonia, Stachyridopsis ruficeps

Qu, Y., Song, G.,Gao, B., Quan, Q., Ericson, P.G.P. & Lei, F. (in press) The influence of geological events on the endemism of East Asian birds studied through comparative phylogeography. Journal of Biogeography.

Abstract:
East Asia is known for its exceptionally high biological diversity and endemism. Various geological and climatic events during the Pliocene and Pleistocene have been invoked to explain this high endemism, and these processes have had different impacts on different organisms. Herein, we investigate the relative role of these historical processes in the genetic evidence for endemism of intraspecific lineages of two East Asian species: the grey-cheeked fulvetta (Alcippe morrisonia) and the red-headed tree babbler (Stachyridopsis ruficeps). We studied the genetic structure based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA and evaluated the phylogeographical lineages using coalescent species tree approaches. The influences of different historical processes on diversification among phylogeographical lineages were analysed using coalescent models. We tested correlations between ecological divergence and phylogeographical splits. The genetic structure analysis and species tree estimation revealed three deeply divergent lineages within both species. One lineage is endemic to the mountains of Southwest China and the other to Taiwan. Coalescent simulations suggested that lineage diversification mostly occurred during the late Pliocene. Within this time frame, uplift of the mountains of Southwest China and formation of the island of Taiwan are geological events consistent with the geographical isolation and ecological niche divergence of these phylogeographical lineages. Our results suggest that the main driver of avian endemism in East Asia was the formation of new montane and island habitats following the uplift of the mountains of Southwest China and formation of the island of Taiwan in the Pliocene. However, the populations in the two regions were affected differently by the climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene. The mountains of Southwest China were climatically stable during glaciations, allowing populations to persist throughout the Pleistocene and maintain their genetic uniqueness. In contrast, glaciations resulted in lowered sea levels, allowing dispersal between the island of Taiwan and mainland China, thus obscuring the genetic endemism of the Taiwanese populations.
 
Alcippe morrisonia, Stachyridopsis ruficeps

Published online...

Qu, Song, Gao, Quan, Ericson & Lei (in press). The influence of geological events on the endemism of East Asian birds studied through comparative phylogeography. J Biogeogr. [abstract] [supp info]

Collar & Robson 2007 (HBW 12):
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top