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- Alström, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Discovery of a relict lineage and monotypic family of passerine birds.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Biology Letters. - : The Royal Society. - 1744-9561 .- 1744-957X. ; 10:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analysis of one of the most comprehensive datasets to date of the largest passerine bird clade, Passerida, identified 10 primary well-supported lineages corresponding to Sylvioidea, Muscicapoidea, Certhioidea, Passeroidea, the ‘bombycillids’ (here proposed to be recognized as Bombycilloidea), Paridae/Remizidae (proposed to be recognized as Paroidea), Stenostiridae, Hyliotidae, Regulidae (proposed to be recognized as Reguloidea) and spotted wren-babbler Spelaeornis formosus. The latter was found on a single branch in a strongly supported clade with Muscicapoidea, Certhioidea and Bombycilloidea, although the relationships among these were unresolved. We conclude that the spotted wren-babbler represents a relict basal lineage within Passerida with no close extant relatives, and we support the already used name Elachura formosa and propose the new family name Elachuridae for this single species.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Alström, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Non-monophyly and intricate morphological evolution within the avian family Cettiidae revealed by multilocus analysis of a taxonomically densely sampled dataset.
- 2011
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Ingår i: BMC Evolutionary Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2148. ; 11, s. 352-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The avian family Cettiidae, including the genera Cettia, Urosphena, Tesia, Abroscopus and Tickellia and Orthotomus cucullatus, has recently been proposed based on analysis of a small number of loci and species. The close relationship of most of these taxa was unexpected, and called for a comprehensive study based on multiple loci and dense taxon sampling. In the present study, we infer the relationships of all except one of the species in this family using one mitochondrial and three nuclear loci. We use traditional gene tree methods (Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood bootstrapping, parsimony bootstrapping), as well as a recently developed Bayesian species tree approach (*BEAST) that accounts for lineage sorting processes that might produce discordance between gene trees. We also analyse mitochondrial DNA for a larger sample, comprising multiple individuals and a large number of subspecies of polytypic species.RESULTS: There are many topological incongruences among the single-locus trees, although none of these is strongly supported. The multi-locus tree inferred using concatenated sequences and the species tree agree well with each other, and are overall well resolved and well supported by the data. The main discrepancy between these trees concerns the most basal split. Both methods infer the genus Cettia to be highly non-monophyletic, as it is scattered across the entire family tree. Deep intraspecific divergences are revealed, and one or two species and one subspecies are inferred to be non-monophyletic (differences between methods).CONCLUSIONS: The molecular phylogeny presented here is strongly inconsistent with the traditional, morphology-based classification. The remarkably high degree of non-monophyly in the genus Cettia is likely to be one of the most extraordinary examples of misconceived relationships in an avian genus. The phylogeny suggests instances of parallel evolution, as well as highly unequal rates of morphological divergence in different lineages. This complex morphological evolution apparently misled earlier taxonomists. These results underscore the well-known but still often neglected problem of basing classifications on overall morphological similarity. Based on the molecular data, a revised taxonomy is proposed. Although the traditional and species tree methods inferred much the same tree in the present study, the assumption by species tree methods that all species are monophyletic is a limitation in these methods, as some currently recognized species might have more complex histories.
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| 4. |
- Apoznanski, G., et al.
(författare)
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Trophic relationship between Salix flowers, Orthosia moths and the western barbastelle
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the results of a study which describes the relationship between the western barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus a highly specialised moth predator, and its prey-moths of the genus Orthosia, another selective animal known to converge around a dominant producer of pollen and nectar in early spring-willow trees Salix sp. In order to describe this trophic relationship, we conducted acoustic recordings at five paired sites (willow/control tree) in proximity to known barbastelle hibernation sites (Natura 2000: PLH080003 and PLH200014) beginning in mid-March 2022 after the first willow blossom sighting. Our study confirms a relationship between willow trees and barbastelles during early spring, as their activity around them was significantly higher than control sites. We also explore the activity of barbastelles over time, finding that activity levels around willows significantly decrease from the night of the first recorded bat, while the abundance of non-moth specialist bats remains consistent. Short-time importance (directly after hibernation) of willows for a moth specialist bat is probably due to other species blossom, attracting alternative prey, and in consequence-the bat. This newly described relationship should influence current conservation measures aimed at barbastelles.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Cai, Tianlong, et al.
(författare)
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Near-complete phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the world's babblers (Aves: Passeriformes)
- 2019
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Ingår i: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 1055-7903 .- 1095-9513. ; 130, s. 346-356
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The babblers are a diverse group of passerine birds comprising 452 species. The group was long regarded as a "scrap basket" in taxonomic classification schemes. Although several studies have assessed the phylogenetic relationships for subsets of babblers during the past two decades, a comprehensive phylogeny of this group has been lacking. In this study, we used five mitochondrial and seven nuclear loci to generate a dated phylogeny for babblers. This phylogeny includes 402 species (ca. 89% of the overall clade) from 75 genera (97%) and all five currently recognized families, providing a robust basis for taxonomic revision. Our phylogeny supports seven major clades and reveals several non-monophyletic genera. Divergence time estimates indicate that the seven major clades diverged around the same time (18-20 million years ago, Ma) in the early Miocene. We use the phylogeny in a consistent way to propose a new taxonomy, with seven families and 64 genera of babblers, and a new linear sequence of names.
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| 8. |
- Gelang, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Ancestral ranges concealed by local extinctions: the historical biogeography of the African and Asian Turdoides babblers and allies (Aves: Passeriformes)
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim To infer the historical biogeography of the genus Turdoides and allies, and to investigate the impact of the geological history of the Arabian Peninsula on the biogeographic interactions between Africa and Asia. Location Terrestrial Africa and Asia, with focus on the Middle East. Methods A five-loci molecular phylogeny was estimated by Bayesian inference and by maximum likelihood. Divergence times were approximated by Bayesian inference under a relaxed clock model, and non-parametrically by asmoothing algorithm between sister paths (PATHD8). Historical biogeography was reconstructed by maximum likelihood approach under the DEC-model, and by the parsimony-based Bayes-DIVA on the trees sampled from the target distribution from the Bayesian inference of the phylogeny. Results The clade comprising Turdoides and its close relatives originated in the end of the Miocene, and initially the Middle East region played an important role. The clade radiated into two subclades, one mainly distributed in Africa, and one distributed in southern Asia, the Middle East and northern and eastern Africa. Main conclusions We propose that local extinctions may have played a key role, in combination with dispersals and vicariance, in forming the present distribution pattern of the study group. The Middle East has been an important and dynamic area for the early evolution of the investigated babblers. Further, we conclude that constraints on biogeographical inference have stronger impact on the analysis than does the biogeographical model implied in the analysis.
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| 9. |
- Gelang, Magnus, 1974-
(författare)
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Babblers, Biogeography and Bayesian Reasoning
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, I try to proceed one step further towards an understanding of the biogeographic processes forming the distribution patterns of organisms that we see today. Babblers and warblers are diverse groups of passerines that are phylogenetically intermixed with other groups in the superfamily Sylvioidea. First, the gross phylogeny of the babblers and associated groups was estimated. Five major lineages of a well-supported monophyletic babbler radiation were recovered, and we proposed a new classification at family and subfamily level. Further, the genus Pnoepyga was excluded from Timaliidae, and we proposed the new family Pnoepygidae fam. nov. Second, the systematic position was investigated for the Albertine Rift taxon Hemitesia neumanni, which was found to be nested within the almost entirely Asian family Cettidae, and possible biogeographical scenarios were discussed. We concluded that the most plausible explanation involved late Miocene vicariance in combination with local extinctions. Third, the historical biogeography of a Leiothrichinae subclade, the Turdoides babblers and allies, was inferred. We concluded that the Middle East region probably played an important role in the early history of this clade, followed by local extinctions in this region. Fourth, a Bayesian method to reconstruct the historical biogeography under an event-based model was proposed, where the total biogeographic histories are sampled from its posterior probability distribution using Markov chains. In conclusion, I believe that, especially with more sophisticated methods available, we will see an increasing number of studies inferring biogeographic histories that lead to distribution patterns built up by a combination of dispersals and vicariance, but where these distributions have been extensively reshaped, or litterally demolished, by local extinctions. Therefore, my answer to the frequently asked question dispersal or vicariance? is both, but not the least: extinctions.
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| 10. |
- Gelang, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Bayesian inference of total biogeographic history under an event-based model
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We propose a Bayesian approach to infer the historical biogeography under an event-based model, where the total biogeographic histories are sampled from its posterior probability distribution using Metropolis-coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo. Total histories are stochastically mapped on a phylogeny followed by invoking a biogeographical model, which defines the biogeographical events dispersal, vicariance, persistence and extinction. A hypothetic order of probabilities for these events to happen is applied in the priors of the analysis, where a stick-breaking process is used to pick variables from a flat Dirichlet distribution. In comparison to the two most commonly used methods, the proposed method delivers relatively similar reconstructions, albeit with some differences such as favouring extinctions more. These differences are linked to either the treatment of total histories, or to the fundamental statistical differences of the three approaches. In conculsion, this method favours extinctions more than the compared methods, but the main difference is more complex and is instead linked to the treatment of total histories.
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