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Harvey MG, Bravo GA, Claramunt S, Cuervo AM, Derryberry GE, Battilana J, Seeholzer GF, McKay JS, O'Meara BC, Faircloth BC, Edwards SV, Pérez-Emán J, Moyle RG, Sheldon FH, Aleixo A, Smith BT, Chesser RT, Silveira LF, Cracraft J, Brumfield RT, Derryberry EP. The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Science 2021; 370:1343-1348. [PMID: 33303617 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz6970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2019] [Revised: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The tropics are the source of most biodiversity yet inadequate sampling obscures answers to fundamental questions about how this diversity evolves. We leveraged samples assembled over decades of fieldwork to study diversification of the largest tropical bird radiation, the suboscine passerines. Our phylogeny, estimated using data from 2389 genomic regions in 1940 individuals of 1283 species, reveals that peak suboscine species diversity in the Neotropics is not associated with high recent speciation rates but rather with the gradual accumulation of species over time. Paradoxically, the highest speciation rates are in lineages from regions with low species diversity, which are generally cold, dry, unstable environments. Our results reveal a model in which species are forming faster in environmental extremes but have accumulated in moderate environments to form tropical biodiversity hotspots.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael G Harvey
- Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA. .,Biodiversity Collections, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Gustavo A Bravo
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. .,Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, 04263-000 Ipiranga, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Santiago Claramunt
- Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario M5S2C6, Canada.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S3B2, Canada.,Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Andrés M Cuervo
- Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá 111321, Colombia.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, LA 70118, USA
| | - Graham E Derryberry
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.,Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Jaqueline Battilana
- Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, 04263-000 Ipiranga, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Glenn F Seeholzer
- Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA.,Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Jessica Shearer McKay
- Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Brian C O'Meara
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Brant C Faircloth
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Scott V Edwards
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Jorge Pérez-Emán
- Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela.,Colección Ornitológica Phelps, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Robert G Moyle
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Frederick H Sheldon
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Alexandre Aleixo
- Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Zoology, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, CP 399, 66040-170 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Brian Tilston Smith
- Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - R Terry Chesser
- US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD 20708, USA.,National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Luís Fábio Silveira
- Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, 04263-000 Ipiranga, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Joel Cracraft
- Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Robb T Brumfield
- Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Elizabeth P Derryberry
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, LA 70118, USA
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Riamon S, Tourment N, Louchart A. The earliest Tyrannida (Aves, Passeriformes), from the Oligocene of France. Sci Rep 2020; 10:9776. [PMID: 32555197 PMCID: PMC7299954 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66149-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Passeriformes is the most diverse bird order. Nevertheless, passerines have a remarkably poor early fossil record. In addition, high osteological homoplasy across passerines makes partial specimens difficult to systematically assign precisely. Here we describe one of the few earliest fossil passerines, from the early Oligocene (ca 30 Ma) of southern France, and one of the best preserved and most complete. This fossil can be conservatively assigned to Tyrannida, a subclade of the New World Tyranni (Suboscines), i.e. of the Tyrannides. A most probably stem-representative of Tyrannida, the new fossil bears strong resemblance with some manakins (Pipridae), possibly due to plesiomorphy. Furthermore, it yields a new point of calibration for molecular phylogenies, already consistent with the age of the fossil. Tyrannida, and the more inclusive Tyrannides, are today confined to the New World. Therefore, the new fossil calls for scenarios of transatlantic crossing during or near the Oligocene. Later, the European part of the distribution of the Tyrannida disappeared, leading to a relictual modern New World distribution of this clade, a pattern known in other avian clades. The history of Tyrannida somehow mirrors that of the enigmatic Sapayoa aenigma, sole New World representative of the Eurylaimides (Old World Tyranni), with transatlantic crossing probably caused by similar events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ségolène Riamon
- Univ Lyon, Univ Lyon 1, ENSL, CNRS, LGL-TPE, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France
| | | | - Antoine Louchart
- Univ Lyon, Univ Lyon 1, ENSL, CNRS, LGL-TPE, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France.
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Ksepka DT, Grande L, Mayr G. Oldest Finch-Beaked Birds Reveal Parallel Ecological Radiations in the Earliest Evolution of Passerines. Curr Biol 2019; 29:657-663.e1. [PMID: 30744971 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2018] [Revised: 11/27/2018] [Accepted: 12/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Beak shape plays a key role in avian radiations and is one of the most intensely studied aspects of avian evolution and ecology [1-4]. Perhaps no other group is more closely associated with the study of beak shape than Passeriformes (passerines or perching birds), the most species-rich ordinal clade of modern birds. However, despite their extraordinary present-day diversity, our understanding of early passerine evolution has been hindered by their sparse fossil record [5, 6]. Here, we describe two new species of early Eocene stem passerines from the Green River Formation of the United States and the Messel Formation of Germany. These species are the oldest fossil birds to exhibit a finch-like beak and provide the earliest evidence for a diet focused on small, hard seeds in crown birds. Given that granivory is a key adaptation that allows passerines to exploit open temperate environments, it is notable that both species occurred in subtropical environments [7, 8]. Phylogenetic analyses place both species within the Psittacopedidae, an extinct Eocene clade of zygodactyl stem passeriforms that also includes the slender-beaked nectarivorous Pumiliornis, the short-beaked Psittacopes, and the thrush-beaked Morsoravis. Our results reveal that stem passerines attained a diversity of beak shapes paralleling many of the morphotypes present in extant passerine finches, thrushes, and sunbirds, more than 35 million years before these morphotypes arose in the crown group. Extinction of these ecologically diverse fossil taxa may be linked to more sophisticated nest construction in anisodactyl crown passerines versus cavity-nesting in Eocene zygodactyl stem passerines [9].
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel T Ksepka
- Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT 06830, USA; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605, USA; American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
| | - Lance Grande
- Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605, USA; American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Gerald Mayr
- Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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