Systematic relationships and biogeography of the tracheophone suboscines (Aves: Passeriformes)

Molecular systematics of New World suboscine birds

“…The antthrush Formicarius was not sister to the antpittas Grallaria, Myrmothera, and Grallaricula, consistent with other sequencing results Rice, 2000). Furthermore, a sister relationship between the Thamnophilidae and the remainder of the Furnarii, as proposed by Sibley andAhlquist (1985, 1990), is inconsistent with the sequence results above (see also Irestedt et al, 2002), in which the Thamnophilidae are sister to the Conopophagidae; this clade is then sister to the remainder of the Furnarii (Fig. 4).…”

“…Sibley and Ahlquist had previously shown that Sclerurus is a genetically atypical furnariid genus, but in their phylogeny it was sister to all other furnariids rather than to a furnariid/dendrocolaptid clade. Irestedt et al (2002) also found the traditional family Formicariidae to be paraphyletic and Sibley and Ahlquist's restricted Formicariidae to be paraphyletic, as well, with the antpittas separated from the antthrushes (see also Rice, 2000).…”

“…The DNA sequence data of Irestedt et al (2002) indicated that the traditional family Furnariidae is paraphyletic if the dendrocolaptids are excluded; Sclerurus was found to be sister to the remainder of the furnariid/ dendrocolaptid clade. Sibley and Ahlquist had previously shown that Sclerurus is a genetically atypical furnariid genus, but in their phylogeny it was sister to all other furnariids rather than to a furnariid/dendrocolaptid clade.…”

“…The genus was not included in the studies of Sibley andAhlquist (1985, 1990). The trees of Irestedt et al (2002) placed it in a polytomy that also included the Thamnophilidae and the Conopophagidae, or as sister to the rest of the Furnarii, although support for these results was weak. The sequence data presented here clearly place Melanopareia in the Furnarii, but it appears to be distantly related to other furnarioids and its affinities within the group remain uncertain.…”

A multi-gene phylogeny of aquiline eagles (Aves: Accipitriformes) reveals extensive paraphyly at the genus level

“…There are now several examples of good agreement between phylogenies based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequences in birds (e.g., Birks and Edwards, 2002;Irestedt et al, 2002;Johnson and Clayton, 2000;Prychitko and Moore, 2000). However, at deeper phylogenetic levels, such as the basal relationships of birds and mammals, congruence between mitochondrial and nuclear sequences proved more difficult to recover due to the stronger effects of mutational bias in the mitochondrial genome (Paton et al, 2002;Phillips and Penny, 2003).…”