Avian higher-level biogeography (1 Viewer)

[Fred Ruhe]

Gerald Mayr, 2017

Avian higher-level biogeography: Southern Hemispheric origins or Southern Hemispheric relicts?

Journal of Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/jbi.12943

Abstract:

A recent analysis of a comprehensive phylogenetic data set suggested Southern Hemispheric origins for various higher level taxa of neornithine (crown group) birds. These results contrast with hypotheses derived from the fossil record, with the occurrence of successively branching stem group representatives of many “Southern Hemispheric” bird groups in the early Cenozoic of Europe and North America suggesting relict extant distributions. However, a selective consideration of the fossil record and the merging of extant ranges may have resulted in a skewed picture of the past biogeographical history of birds. For future studies, it is proposed that multiple taxa of successively branching Northern Hemispheric stem group representatives are considered to narrow down the ancestral areas of the crown group representatives.


Free pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12943/epdf

Enjoy,

Fred

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Cracraft, J. and Claramunt, S. (2017), Conceptual and analytical worldviews shape differences about global avian biogeography. J. Biogeogr.. doi:10.1111/jbi.12969

[pdf]