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Alaudidae (1 Viewer)

TomDerutter said:
"Mountain Horned Lark" is a silly name. Don't most Horned Larks breed in mountains?
Click to expand...

Well, no, in the Americas they breed all over the western plains from Canada to Mexico. Admittedly there's a few mountains in the area (e.g. the Rockies) but mostly they're found in gravelly flat areas.
 
The names and rationale follow Ghorbani, F., Aliabadian, M., Olsson, U., Donald, P.F., Khan, A.A. och Alström, P. 2020. Mitochondrial phylogeography of the genus Eremophila confirms underestimated species diversity in the Palearctic. J. Ornithol. 161:297–312.

Also see it for breakdown of forms.

Brian S
 
Paul Clapham said:
Well, no, in the Americas they breed all over the western plains from Canada to Mexico. Admittedly there's a few mountains in the area (e.g. the Rockies) but mostly they're found in gravelly flat areas.
Click to expand...

And in the eastern US, they're common in fallow farm fields during breeding season.
 
Alaudala

Per Alström, Jip van Linschooten, Paul F. Donald, Gombobaatar Sundev, Zeinolabedin Mohammadi, Fatemeh Ghorbani, Arya Shafaeipour, Arnoud van den Berg, Magnus Robb, Mansour Aliabadian, Chentao Wei, Fumin Lei, Bengt Oxelman, Urban Olsson. Multiple species delimitation approaches applied to the avian lark genus Alaudala. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In Press, Journal Pre-proof, Available online 22 October 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106994

Abstract:

Species delimitation has advanced from a purely phenotypic exercise to a branch of science that integrates multiple sources of data to identify independently evolving lineages that can be treated as species. We here test species limits in the avian Lesser Short-toed Lark Alaudala rufesens–Sand Lark A. raytal complex, which has an intricate taxonomic history, ranging from a single to three recognised species, with different inclusiveness in different treatments. Our integrative taxonomic approach is based on a combination of DNA sequences, plumage, biometrics, songs, song-flights, geographical distributions, habitat, and bioclimatic data, and using various methods including a species delimitation program (STACEY) based on the multispecies coalescent model. We propose that four species should be recognised: Lesser Short-toed Lark A. rufescens (sensu stricto), Heine’s Short-toed Lark A. heinei, Asian Short-toed Lark A. cheleensis and Sand Lark A. raytal. There is also some evidence suggesting lineage separation within A. cheleensis and A. raytal, but additional data are required to evaluate this. The species delimitation based on STACEY agrees well with the non-genetic data. Although computer-based species delimitation programs can be useful in identifying independently evolving lineages, we stress that whenever possible, species hypotheses proposed by these programs should be tested by independent, non-genetic data. Our results highlight the difficulty and subjectivity of delimiting lineages and species, especially at early stages in the speciation process.
 
Stervander M., Hansson B., Olsson U., Hulme M.F., Ottosson U. & Alström P., 2020. Molecular species delimitation of larks (Aves: Alaudidae), and integrative taxonomy of the genus Calandrella, with the description of a range-restricted African relic taxon. Diversity 12 (428): 1-42.

There
 
Too bad that the 4th supplementary files is illegible

There is a link to zenodo, and among the files, there's one that interest me but impossible to open it :

Alaudidae_cytb_HKYGI_BDrelLN_modOp_20M1K.trees.tar.gz
 
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The tree that is unreadable in Supplementary File 4 is Alaudidae_cytb_HKYGI_BDrelLN_modOp_20M1K_c40Mbi5.mccmed.nwk in the Zenodo folder.
See attached pdf.
 

Attachments

  • Alaudidae_cytb_HKYGI_BDrelLN_modOp_20M1K_c40Mbi5.mccmed.nwk.pdf
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The position of leucoptera is the same here as in Fig. 2 of Alström et al 2013 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.005] [pdf], which was also based on cyt-b only. (See also Alström et al's [first suppl. file].) The only gene that strongly supported leucoptera being sister to Alauda (to the exclusion of Galerida) in the 2013 data set was ODC.
Alström et al. 2013 recovered Mirafra passerina embedded in Mirafra with cyt-b (sister to the javanica/cantillans/cheniana/williamsi clade, PP = 1 in the suppl. file), using the same sequence as Stervander et al (AY165163, deposited in GenBank by Tieleman, William & Bloomer 2003 [here]), so the difference in placement is quite surprising. Maybe an alignment issue ?
 
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l_raty said:
The position of leucoptera is the same here as in Fig. 2 of Alström et al 2013 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.005] [pdf], which was also base on cyt-b only. (See also Alström et al's [first suppl. file].) The only gene that strongly supported leucoptera being sister to Alauda (to the exclusion of Galerida) in the 2013 data set was ODC.
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What would it mean that the placement of leucoptera in Alauda could be temporary?
 
It will eventually stabilize sooner or later

The authors don't exclude the fact that williamsi obtains its species status. So the name would change to Calandrella williamsi rufipecta. In the supplementary files, williamsi is treated as a species :brains:
 
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Jim LeNomenclatoriste said:
It will eventually stabilize sooner or later

The authors don't exclude the fact that williamsi obtains its species status. So the name would change to Calandrella williamsi rufipecta. In the supplementary files, williamsi is treated as a species :brains:
Click to expand...
I wouldn't read too much into how the sequence labels (taxa) look like in the supplementary files, it could just be that the sloppy first author had failed to make renaming changes in those trees. ;-) But on a serious note, I would argue that the southern clade (cinerea group) and the northern clade (williamsi and rufipecta) are differentiated at a level that may very well warrant a split giving williamsi species status. Sadly, we lack data to properly evaluate this, in particular a sufficient sample of recordings for analyses of vocalization. Because while the new Nigerian taxon (rufipecta) has a plumage that is distinct from every other lark taxon, the East African williamsi are not necessarily as different from the southern cinerea group.
 
Jim LeNomenclatoriste said:
Too bad that the 4th supplementary files is illegible

There is a link to zenodo, and among the files, there's one that interest me but impossible to open it :

Alaudidae_cytb_HKYGI_BDrelLN_modOp_20M1K.trees.tar.gz
Click to expand...
I am glad that viewing this file was sorted out eventually, and I apologize for the inaccurate linking and labelling of supplements, which I blame the publisher for, but which was eventually resolved.
 

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