Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-16-2019
Abstract
© 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Avian diversification has been influenced by global climate change, plate tectonic movements, and mass extinction events. However, the impact of these factors on the diversification of the hyperdiverse perching birds (passerines) is unclear because family level relationships are unresolved and the timing of splitting events among lineages is uncertain. We analyzed DNA data from 4,060 nuclear loci and 137 passerine families using concatenation and coalescent approaches to infer a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis that clarifies relationships among all passerine families. Then, we calibrated this phylogeny using 13 fossils to examine the effects of different events in Earth history on the timing and rate of passerine diversification. Our analyses reconcile passerine diversification with the fossil and geological records; suggest that passerines originated on the Australian landmass ∼47 Ma; and show that subsequent dispersal and diversification of passerines was affected by a number of climatological and geological events, such as Oligocene glaciation and inundation of the New Zealand landmass. Although passerine diversification rates fluctuated throughout the Cenozoic, we find no link between the rate of passerine diversification and Cenozoic global temperature, and our analyses show that the increases in passerine diversification rate we observe are disconnected from the colonization of new continents. Taken together, these results suggest more complex mechanisms than temperature change or ecological opportunity have controlled macroscale patterns of passerine speciation.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
First Page
7916
Last Page
7925
Recommended Citation
Oliveros, C., Field, D., Ksepka, D., Keith Barker, F., Aleixo, A., Andersen, M., Alström, P., Benz, B., Braun, E., Braun, M., Bravo, G., Brumfield, R., Terry Chesser, R., Claramunt, S., Cracraft, J., Cuervo, A., Derryberry, E., Glenn, T., Harvey, M., Hosner, P., Joseph, L., Kimball, R., Mack, A., Miskelly, C., Townsend Peterson, A., Robbins, M., Sheldon, F., Silveira, L., Smith, B., White, N., Moyle, R., & Faircloth, B. (2019). Earth history and the passerine superradiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116 (16), 7916-7925. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813206116