Stockholms universitet

Per EricsonDocent

Publikationer

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

  • Ancestral ranges concealed by local extinctions: the historical biogeography of the African and Asian Turdoides babblers and allies (Aves: Passeriformes)

    Magnus Gelang (et al.).

    Aim

    To infer the historical biogeography of the genus Turdoides and allies, and to investigate the impact of the geological history of the Arabian Peninsula on the biogeographic interactions between Africa and Asia.

    Location

    Terrestrial Africa and Asia, with focus on the Middle East.

    Methods

    A five-loci molecular phylogeny was estimated by Bayesian inference and by maximum likelihood. Divergence times were approximated by Bayesian inference under a relaxed clock model, and non-parametrically by asmoothing algorithm between sister paths (PATHD8). Historical biogeography was reconstructed by maximum likelihood approach under the DEC-model, and by the parsimony-based Bayes-DIVA on the trees sampled from the target distribution from the Bayesian inference of the phylogeny.

    Results

    The clade comprising Turdoides and its close relatives originated in the end of the Miocene, and initially the Middle East region played an important role. The clade radiated into two subclades, one mainly distributed in Africa, and one distributed in southern Asia, the Middle East and northern and eastern Africa.

    Main conclusions

    We propose that local extinctions may have played a key role, in combination with dispersals and vicariance, in forming the present distribution pattern of the study group. The Middle East has been an important and dynamic area for the early evolution of the investigated babblers. Further, we conclude that constraints on biogeographical inference have stronger impact on the analysis than does the biogeographical model implied in the analysis.

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  • Systematic revision of the avian family Cisticolidae based on a multi-locus phylogeny of all genera

    2013. Urban Olsson (et al.). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66 (3), 790-799

    Artikel

    The avian taxon Cisticolidae includes c. 110 species which are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical parts of the Old World. We estimated the phylogeny of 47 species representing all genera assumed to be part of Cisticolidae based on sequence data from two mitochondrial and two nuclear markers, in total 3495 bp. Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analyses resulted in a generally well-supported phylogeny which clarified the position of several previously poorly known taxa. The placement of Drymocichla, Malcorus, Micromacronus, Oreophilais, Phragmacia, Phyllolais, Poliolais and Urorhipis in Cisticolidae is corroborated, whereas Rhopophilus and Scotocerca are removed from Cisticolidae. Urorhipis and Heliolais are placed in the genus Prinia whereas Prinia burnesii is shown to be part of Timaliidae, and is placed in the genus Laticilla. Although not recovered by all single loci independently, four major clades were identified within Cisticolidae, and one of these is here described as a new taxon (Neomixinae).

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  • The spatio-temporal colonization and diversification across the Indo-Pacific by a ‘great speciator’ (Aves, Erythropitta erythrogaster)

    2013. Martin Irestedt (et al.). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences 280 (1759), 20130309

    Artikel

    The Indo-Pacific region has arguably been the most important area for the formulation of theories about biogeography and speciation, but modern studies of the tempo, mode and magnitude of diversification across this region are scarce. We study the biogeographical history and characterize levels of diversification in the wide-ranging passerine bird Erythropitta erythrogaster using molecular, phylogeographic and population genetics methods, as well as morphometric and plumage analyses. Our results suggest that E. erythrogaster colonized the Indo-Pacific during the Pleistocene in an eastward direction following a stepping stone pathway, and that sea level fluctuations during the Pleistocene only locally may have promoted gene flow. A molecular species delimitation test suggests that several allopatric island populations of E. erythrogaster may be regarded as species. Most of these putative new species are further characterized by diagnostic differences in plumage. Our study reconfirms the E. erythrogaster complex as a ‘great speciator’: it represents a complex of up to 17 allopatrically distributed, reciprocally monophyletic and/or morphologically diagnosable species that originated during the Pleistocene. Our results support the view that observed latitudinal gradients of genetic divergence among avian sister-species may have been affected by incomplete knowledge of taxonomic limits in tropical bird species.

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