Area‐relationships in the Neotropical lowlands: an hypothesis based on raw distributions of Passerine birds

Abstract

Abstract. Using raw geographic distributions for Neotropical species and subspecies of the perching birds (Order Passeriformes), we present an hypothesis of area‐relationships for twelve avian areas of endemism in the lowland Neotropics. With 1717 characters (distributions of species and subspecies) we find a single most parsimonious tree of area‐relationships. This topology does not match area‐relationships determined from phylogenetic studies of morphologic characters in some Neotropical birds. Analyses of data partitions representing major taxonomic subdivisions within Passerine birds provide many different hypotheses of area‐relationships. These results suggest that a single set of Neotropical area‐relationships is not likely. In the future, we suggest greater emphasis be placed on research to document patterns in the Neotropics, particularly phylogenetic patterns, than on speculation about what processes have been important for diversification.

Prediction of phylogeographic endemism in an environmentally complex biome

“…Through an ordination-based analysis of the AF climate, we identified two broadly different climatic regimes-one mostly distributed in the north, the other in the southern areas of the biome. The transition between these climatic spaces happens roughly around the Rio Doce-a known biogeographic divide [38,39]. This major bioclimatic transition also matches patterns of species turnover between the northern and the southern portions of the AF based on locality data for 25 vertebrate species (figure 1), published observations of precipitation seasonality discontinuities [29], as well as faunal changes revealed by panbiogeographical analyses [40].…”

The Phylogeography of Amazonia Revisited: New Evidence From Riodinid Butterflies

“…The cleonus group is divided into two basal Guianan species and sister clades of upper and lower Amazonian species, which can be further subdivided into six widely recognized Amazonian regions of endemism, namely Imeri, Inambari, Napo, Rondô nia, Pará, and Belém (Haffer 1974(Haffer , 1985Cracraft 1985;Cracraft and Prum 1988;Prum 1988;Bates et al 1998). The pattern of historical interrelationships described in Figure 1 is Guiana ϩ ((Rondô nia ϩ (Pará ϩ Belém)) ϩ (Imeri ϩ (Napo ϩ Inambari))).…”

“…In an effort to compare the Amazonian area cladogram for the C. cleonus group of riodinid butterflies with those derived from the study of other organisms, we present eight area cladograms ( Fig. 2A-H) for Amazonian amphibians, reptiles, birds, primates, rodents, and marsupials adapted from the literature (Cracraft and Prum 1988;Prum 1988;da Silva and Oren 1996;Bates et al 1998;Patton et al 2000;Ron 2000). The area cladogram in Figure 2H for rodents and marsupials (Patton et al 2000) is a summary of eight originally presented cladograms that was generated using the matrix representation with parsimony method (MRP; Baum 1992; Ragan 1992; Sanderson et al 1998), which is essentially the same as Brook's parsimony (Wiley 1987(Wiley , 1988a when an area appears only once on a cladogram.…”

“…This method was used because a consensus cladogram is generated for which branch support values can be ascertained. The strength of branch support was estimated by means of 1000 bootstrap replicates (Felsenstein 1985) in PAUP version 4.0b4a (Swofford 2000) and by calculating decay indices (Bremer 1988(Bremer , 1994 (Ron 2000); (C) maximum-parsimony (MP) analysis using morphological characters for three clades (10 species) of toucans (Prum 1988); (D) MP using morphological characters for eight clades (37 species) of toucans, woodpeckers, manakins, and cotingas (Prum 1988); (E) MP using morphological characters for four clades (25 species) of parrots and toucans (Cracraft and Prum 1988); (F) PAE for all Neotropical passerine birds (1717 species and subspecies; Bates et al 1998); (G) PAE for all Amazonian primates (51 species; da Silva and Oren 1996); (H) MP using mtDNA characters for 17 species (including multiple geographic haplotypes for most species) of sciurid, murid, and echimyid rodents and marsupials (Patton et al 2000); the pre-← sented cladogram is a summary of eight original cladograms, generated using MRP (see below and methods section); (I) MP using morphological characters for the Charis cleonus group of riodinid butterflies (this study); and (J) a summary area cladogram for Amazonia generated by using the matrix representation with parsimony method to combine the topologies of cladograms A-I (Baum 1992;Ragan 1992;Sanderson et al 1998); branch support estimates are bootstrap values above nodes and decay indices below nodes. 1998) in combination with PAUP.…”

“…The search for historical speciation mechanisms to explain this diversity has led to the discovery of striking and often congruent faunal discontinuities within the seemingly uniform rainforest environment of Amazonia in a wide array of organisms, including plants (Prance 1973(Prance , 1982a, mammals (Kinzey 1982;Patton et al 1994Patton et al , 1997Patton et al , 2000da Silva and Oren 1996;Patton and da Silva 1998), birds (Haffer 1969(Haffer , 1987Cracraft and Prum 1988;Capparella 1988Capparella , 1991Prum 1988;Bates et al 1998), amphibians (Lynch 1979;Duellman 1982Duellman , 1988Heyer and Maxson 1982;Heyer 1988;Gascon et al 1998;Ron 2000), reptiles (Vanzolini and Williams 1970;Vanzolini 1988;Á vila-Pires 1995), and insects (Brown et al 1974;Brown 1982Brown , 1987Erwin and Pogue 1988;Erwin 1998;Hall and Harvey 2001). Hypotheses that have been developed to explain these patterns differ in treating speciation as having occurred in sympatry, parapatry, or allopatry and in their emphasis on which physical or ecological barriers were most important in controlling interbreeding and dispersal.…”