Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Research article2018Peer reviewedOpen access

Complete species-level phylogeny of the leaf warbler (Aves: Phylloscopidae) radiation

Alstrom, Per; Rheindt, Frank E.; Zhang, Ruiying; Zhao, Min; Wang, Jing; Zhu, Xiaojia; Gwee, Chyi Yin; Hao, Yan; Ohlson, Jan; Jia, Chenxi; Prawiradilaga, Dewi M.; Ericson, Per G. P.; Lei, Fumin; Olsson, Urban

Abstract

The leaf warbler radiation (Aves: Phylloscopidae) has undergone a c. 50% increase in the number of recognised species over the last three decades, mainly as a result of analyses of vocalisations and DNA. Using a multilocus dataset for all of the species in this family, and multispecies coalescent-based as well as concatenation methods, we provide the first complete species-level phylogeny for this important group, as well as an estimate of the timing of diversification. The most recent common ancestor for the family was dated at 11.7 million years ago (mya) (95% highest posterior density 9.8-13.7 mya), and divergence times between sister species ranged from 0.5 mya (0.3-0.8 mya) to 6.1 mya (4.8-7.5 mya). Based on our results, we support synonymising Seicercus with Phylloscopus, which results in a monogeneric Phylloscopidae. We discuss the pros and cons of this treatment, and we argue against proliferation of taxonomic names, and conclude that a large monogeneric Phylloscopidae leads to the fewest taxonomic changes compared to traditional classifications.We briefly discuss morphological evolution in the light of the phylogeny. The time calibrated phylogeny is a major improvement compared to previous studies based on a smaller number of species and loci and can provide a basis for future studies of other aspects of phylloscopid evolution.

Keywords

Species tree; Concatenation; Taxonomic revision

Published in

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
2018, Volume: 126, pages: 141-152 Publisher: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Biological Systematics
    Evolutionary Biology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.03.031

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96064