Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics.

Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity1-4. Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference5, and captures only a fraction of the genomic diversity. Here we report a substantial step towards the dense representation of avian phylogenetic and molecular diversity, by analysing 363 genomes from 92.4% of bird families-including 267 newly sequenced genomes produced for phase II of the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) Project. We use this comparative genome dataset in combination with a pipeline that leverages a reference-free whole-genome alignment to identify orthologous regions in greater numbers than has previously been possible and to recognize genomic novelties in particular bird lineages. The densely sampled alignment provides a single-base-pair map of selection, has more than doubled the fraction of bases that are confidently predicted to be under conservation and reveals extensive patterns of weak selection in predominantly non-coding DNA. Our results demonstrate that increasing the diversity of genomes used in comparative studies can reveal more shared and lineage-specific variation, and improve the investigation of genomic characteristics. We anticipate that this genomic resource will offer new perspectives on evolutionary processes in cross-species comparative analyses and assist in efforts to conserve species.

Widespread support for a global species list with a formal governance system.

Taxonomic data are a scientific common. Unlike nomenclature, which has strong governance institutions, there are currently no generally accepted governance institutions for the compilation of taxonomic data into an accepted global list. This gap results in challenges for conservation, ecological research, policymaking, international trade, and other areas of scientific and societal importance. Consensus on a global list and its management requires effective governance and standards, including agreed mechanisms for choosing among competing taxonomies and partial lists. However, governance frameworks are currently lacking, and a call for governance in 2017 generated critical responses. Any governance system to which compliance is voluntary requires a high level of legitimacy and credibility among those by and for whom it is created. Legitimacy and credibility, in turn, require adequate and credible consultation. Here, we report on the results of a global survey of taxonomists, scientists from other disciplines, and users of taxonomy designed to assess views and test ideas for a new system of taxonomic list governance. We found a surprisingly high degree of agreement on the need for a global list of accepted species and their names, and consistent views on what such a list should provide to users and how it should be governed. The survey suggests that consensus on a mechanism to create, manage, and govern a single widely accepted list of all the world's species is achievable. This finding was unexpected given past controversies about the merits of list governance.

Principles for creating a single authoritative list of the world's species.

Lists of species underpin many fields of human endeavour, but there are currently no universally accepted principles for deciding which biological species should be accepted when there are alternative taxonomic treatments (and, by extension, which scientific names should be applied to those species). As improvements in information technology make it easier to communicate, access, and aggregate biodiversity information, there is a need for a framework that helps taxonomists and the users of taxonomy decide which taxa and names should be used by society whilst continuing to encourage taxonomic research that leads to new species discoveries, new knowledge of species relationships, and the refinement of existing species concepts. Here, we present 10 principles that can underpin such a governance framework, namely (i) the species list must be based on science and free from nontaxonomic considerations and interference, (ii) governance of the species list must aim for community support and use, (iii) all decisions about list composition must be transparent, (iv) the governance of validated lists of species is separate from the governance of the names of taxa, (v) governance of lists of accepted species must not constrain academic freedom, (vi) the set of criteria considered sufficient to recognise species boundaries may appropriately vary between different taxonomic groups but should be consistent when possible, (vii) a global list must balance conflicting needs for currency and stability by having archived versions, (viii) contributors need appropriate recognition, (ix) list content should be traceable, and (x) a global listing process needs both to encompass global diversity and to accommodate local knowledge of that diversity. We conclude by outlining issues that must be resolved if such a system of taxonomic list governance and a unified list of accepted scientific names generated are to be universally adopted.

Parallel Evolution of Bower-Building Behavior in Two Groups of Bowerbirds Suggested by Phylogenomics.

The bowerbirds in New Guinea and Australia include species that build the largest and perhaps most elaborately decorated constructions outside of humans. The males use these courtship bowers, along with their displays, to attract females. In these species, the mating system is polygynous and the females alone incubate and feed the nestlings. The bowerbirds also include 10 species of the socially monogamous catbirds in which the male participates in most aspects of raising the young. How the bower-building behavior evolved has remained poorly understood, as no comprehensive phylogeny exists for the family. It has been assumed that the monogamous catbird clade is sister to all polygynous species. We here test this hypothesis using a newly developed pipeline for obtaining homologous alignments of thousands of exonic and intronic regions from genomic data to build a phylogeny. Our well-supported species tree shows that the polygynous, bower-building species are not monophyletic. The result suggests either that bower-building behavior is an ancestral condition in the family that was secondarily lost in the catbirds, or that it has arisen in parallel in two lineages of bowerbirds. We favor the latter hypothesis based on an ancestral character reconstruction showing that polygyny but not bower-building is ancestral in bowerbirds, and on the observation that Scenopoeetes dentirostris, the sister species to one of the bower-building clades, does not build a proper bower but constructs a court for male display. This species is also sexually monomorphic in plumage despite having a polygynous mating system. We argue that the relatively stable tropical and subtropical forest environment in combination with low predator pressure and rich food access (mostly fruit) facilitated the evolution of these unique life-history traits. [Adaptive radiation; bowerbirds; mating system, sexual selection; whole genome sequencing.].

Towards reconciliation of the four world bird lists: hotspots of disagreement in taxonomy of raptors.

There are currently four world bird lists referenced by different stakeholders including governments, academic journals, museums and citizen scientists. Consolidation of these lists is a conservation and research priority. In reconciling lists, care must be taken to ensure agreement in taxonomic concepts-the actual groups of individual organisms circumscribed by a given scientific epithet. Here, we compare species-level taxonomic concepts for raptors across the four lists, highlighting areas of disagreement. Of the 665 species-level raptor taxa observed at least once among the four lists, only 453 (68%) were consistent across all four lists. The Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World contains the fewest raptor species (528), whereas the International Ornithological Community World Bird List contains the most (580) and these two lists are in the most disagreement. Of the disagreements, 67% involved owls, and Indonesia was the country containing the most disagreed upon species (169). Finally, we calculated the amount of species-level agreement across lists for each avian order and found raptor orders spread throughout the rankings of agreement. Our results emphasize the need to reconcile the four world bird lists for all avian orders, highlight broad disagreements across lists and identify hotspots of disagreement for raptors, in particular.

DNA barcoding a unique avifauna: an important tool for evolution, systematics and conservation.

BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding utilises a standardised region of the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene to identify specimens to the species level. It has proven to be an effective tool for identification of avian samples. The unique island avifauna of New Zealand is taxonomically and evolutionarily distinct. We analysed COI sequence data in order to determine if DNA barcoding could accurately identify New Zealand birds. RESULTS: We sequenced 928 specimens from 180 species. Additional Genbank sequences expanded the dataset to 1416 sequences from 211 of the estimated 236 New Zealand species. Furthermore, to improve the assessment of genetic variation in non-endemic species, and to assess the overall accuracy of our approach, sequences from 404 specimens collected outside of New Zealand were also included in our analyses. Of the 191 species represented by multiple sequences, 88.5% could be successfully identified by their DNA barcodes. This is likely a conservative estimate of the power of DNA barcoding in New Zealand, given our extensive geographic sampling. The majority of the 13 groups that could not be distinguished contain recently diverged taxa, indicating incomplete lineage sorting and in some cases hybridisation. In contrast, 16 species showed evidence of distinct intra-species lineages, some of these corresponding to recognised subspecies. For species identification purposes a character-based method was more successful than distance and phylogenetic tree-based methods. CONCLUSIONS: DNA barcodes accurately identify most New Zealand bird species. However, low levels of COI sequence divergence in some recently diverged taxa limit the identification power of DNA barcoding. A small number of currently recognised species would benefit from further systematic investigations. The reference database and analysis presented will provide valuable insights into the evolution, systematics and conservation of New Zealand birds.

Bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA data of Ninox owls support high incidence of extinction and recolonisation on small, low-lying islands across Wallacea.

Known for their rich biodiversity and high level of endemism, the islands of Wallacea serve as natural laboratories for the study of spatio-temporal evolution and patterns of species diversification. Our study focuses on the owl genus Ninox, particularly the Southern Boobook (N. novaeseelandiae) and Moluccan Boobook (N. squamipila) complexes, which are widely distributed across Australasia. We conducted bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA analyses of 24 Ninox owl taxa to evaluate relationships and levels of divergence within the two complexes and ultimately assess the relationship between patterns of taxonomic differentiation and bioclimatic factors. We found that taxa that are vocally and/or genetically distinct from populations on the Australian mainland are found on islands that are significantly larger and higher in altitude than taxa that are vocally and/or genetically indistinct from populations on the Australian mainland. This pattern suggests that taxa occurring on small, low-lying Wallacean islands are likely to be recent colonisers that have dispersed from Australia. Overall, our observations demonstrate that the genus Ninox is likely to have colonised the Wallacean region multiple times as small, low-lying islands undergo frequent extinction, whereas populations on large and high-altitude islands are more resilient.

Evidence of taxon cycles in an Indo-Pacific passerine bird radiation (Aves: Pachycephala).

Many insular taxa possess extraordinary abilities to disperse but may differ in their abilities to diversify and compete. While some taxa are widespread across archipelagos, others have disjunct (relictual) populations. These types of taxa, exemplified in the literature by selections of unrelated taxa, have been interpreted as representing a continuum of expansions and contractions (i.e. taxon cycles). Here, we use molecular data of 35 out of 40 species of the avian genus Pachycephala (including 54 out of 66 taxa in Pachycephala pectoralis (sensu lato), to assess the spatio-temporal evolution of the group. We also include data on species distributions, morphology, habitat and elevational ranges to test a number of predictions associated with the taxon-cycle hypothesis. We demonstrate that relictual species persist on the largest and highest islands across the Indo-Pacific, whereas recent archipelago expansions resulted in colonization of all islands in a region. For co-occurring island taxa, the earliest colonists generally inhabit the interior and highest parts of an island, with little spatial overlap with later colonists. Collectively, our data support the idea that taxa continuously pass through phases of expansions and contractions (i.e. taxon cycles).

Resolving deep lineage divergences in core corvoid passerine birds supports a proto-Papuan island origin.

It is well established that the global expansion of songbirds (Oscines) originated in East Gondwana (present day Australo-Papua), and it has been postulated that one of the main constituent groups, the "core Corvoidea", with more than 750 species, originated in the first islands that emerged where New Guinea is now located. However, several polytomous relationships remained within the clade, obstructing detailed biogeographical interpretations. This study presents a well-resolved family-level phylogeny, based on a dataset of 22 nuclear loci and using a suite of partitioning schemes and Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. Resolving the relationships within the core Corvoidea provides evidence for three well-supported main clades, which are in turn sister to the New Zealand genus Mohoua. Some monotypic lineages, which have previously been considered Incertae sedis, are also placed in a phylogenetic context. The well-resolved phylogeny provides a robust framework for biogeographical analyses, and provides further support for the hypothesis that core corvoids originated in the proto-Papuan island region that emerged north of Australia in the late Oligocene/early Miocene. Thus, the core Corvoidea appear to represent a true island radiation, which successfully colonized all continents except Antarctica.

Relicts from Tertiary Australasia: undescribed families and subfamilies of songbirds (Passeriformes) and their zoogeographic signal.

A number of hitherto unrecognized, deeply divergent taxa of Australasian songbirds have been revealed by DNA sequence studies in the last decade. Differentiation among them is at levels equivalent to family and subfamily rank among songbirds generally. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to name and describe eleven of them formally under Articles 13.1, 13.2, 16.1 and 16.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature so that they are made available for use in zoology. The taxa are: families Oreoicidae, Eulacestomatidae, Rhagologidae, Ifritidae and Melampittidae, and subfamilies Pachycareinae, Oreoscopinae, Toxorhamphinae, Oedistomatinae, Peltopsinae and Lamproliinae. The families to which the subfamilies belong are documented. Morphological and behavioural traits of the new family-group taxa are discussed; reasons for taxonomic rankings are summarized; and grounds for the geographic origin of corvoid songbirds, to which all the new families belong, are briefly addressed. One new genus,Megalampitta in Melampittidae, is also described.

A multigene phylogeny examining evolutionary and ecological relationships in the Australo-papuan wrens of the subfamily Malurinae (Aves).

Nucleotide sequences from four mitochondrial genes and three nuclear introns were used to examine phylogenetic relationships within the Australo-papuan fairy-wrens (Passeriformes: Maluridae: Malurinae). A well-resolved and well-supported phylogenetic hypothesis of all species in the subfamily was generated. The tree contained three clades corresponding to groups with similar plumages previously identified in earlier studies: the "bi-color," "blue," and "chestnut-shouldered" groups. The genus Malurus was not monophyletic -Malurusgrayi formed a clade with two New Guinean genera Sipodotus and Clytomyias. We recommend M. grayi be reclassified into the genus Chenorhamphus Oustalet 1898. One other taxonomic change is recommended based on the large genetic distance between the two subspecies of Chenorhamphus grayi - the elevation of C. g.campbelli to specific status (= C. campbelli). Although the family Maluridae appears to have had its origins in Australia, the DNA data supports a New Guinean origin for the Malurini (Sipodotus, Clytomyias, Chenorhamphus, Malurus).

Systematics and biogeography of Indo-Pacific ground-doves.

Ground-doves represent an insular bird radiation distributed across the Indo-Pacific. The radiation comprises sixteen extant species, two species believed to be extinct and six species known to be extinct. In the present study, we present a molecular phylogeny for all sixteen extant species, based on two mitochondrial markers. We demonstrate that the Gallicolumba as currently circumscribed is not monophyletic and recommend reinstalling the name Alopecoenas for a monophyletic radiation comprising ten extant species, distributed in New Guinea, the Lesser Sundas and Oceania. Gallicolumba remains the name for six species confined to New Guinea the Philippines and Sulawesi. Although our phylogenetic analyses fail to support a single origin for the remaining Gallicolumba species, we suspect that the addition of nuclear sequence data may alter this result. Because a number of ground-dove taxa have gone extinct, it is difficult to assess biogeographical patterns. However, the Alopecoenas clade has clearly colonized many remote oceanic islands rather recently, with several significant water crossings. The Gallicolumba radiation(s), on the other hand, is significantly older and it is possible that diversification within that group may in part have been shaped by plate tectonics and corresponding re-arrangements of land masses within the Philippine and Sulawesi region.

Multilocus analysis of a taxonomically densely sampled dataset reveal extensive non-monophyly in the avian family Locustellidae.

The phylogeny of most of the species in the avian passerine family Locustellidae is inferred using a Bayesian species tree approach (Bayesian Estimation of Species Trees, BEST), as well as a traditional Bayesian gene tree method (MrBayes), based on a dataset comprising one mitochondrial and four nuclear loci. The trees inferred by the different methods agree fairly well in topology, although in a few cases there are marked differences. Some of these discrepancies might be due to convergence problems for BEST (despite up to 1×10(9) iterations). The phylogeny strongly disagrees with the current taxonomy at the generic level, and we propose a revised classification that recognizes four instead of seven genera. These results emphasize the well known but still often neglected problem of basing classifications on non-cladistic evaluations of morphological characters. An analysis of an extended mitochondrial dataset with multiple individuals from most species, including many subspecies, suggest that several taxa presently treated as subspecies or as monotypic species as well as a few taxa recognized as separate species are in need of further taxonomic work.

Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA phylogenies reveal a complex evolutionary history in the Australasian robins (Passeriformes: Petroicidae).

The Australasian robins (Petroicidae) comprise a relatively homogeneous group of small to medium-sized insectivorous birds. Their center of diversity is Australia and New Guinea (40 species) but seven species have managed to colonize geographically distant islands such as Tanimbar, New Britain, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Samoa. To resolve the evolutionary relationships within the Petroicidae, we here present the results of a phylogenetic analysis of sequence data from two mitochondrial genes (ND2, CO1) and one nuclear intron (ß-Fibrinogen intron 5) for all 14 genera and 40 of the 46 currently recognized species. All phylogenetic analyses identified six primary lineages, treated here as subfamilies, within the Petroicidae: (1) Eopsaltriinae comprising Eopsaltria (excluding E. flaviventris), Tregellasia, Peneothello, Melanodryas, Poecilodryas and Heteromyias; (2) Drymodinae comprising Drymodes; (3) Microecinae comprising Microeca, Monachella and Eopsaltria flaviventris; (4) Petroicinae comprising Petroica and Eugerygone; (5) Pachycephalopsinae comprising Pachycephalopsis; and (6) Amalocichlinae comprising Amalocichla. The genera Eopsaltria, Microeca, Peneothello and Poecilodryas were found to be paraphyletic. Based on assessments of phylogenetic branching patterns and/or DNA divergence it also was apparent that Eopsaltriaaustralis, Tregellasialeucops, Melanodryascucullata, Heteromyiasalbispecularis, Drymodessupercilious and Microecaflavigaster may each comprise more than one species. The Petroicidae display a complex biogeographical history involving repeated radiations both within, and across Australia and New Guinea. It appears that dispersal into smaller islands such as New Britain, Tanimbar and the South Pacific has only been undertaken by species with a "flycatcher" body form.

Trophic niche shifts and phenotypic trait evolution are largely decoupled in Australasian parrots.

BACKGROUND: Trophic shifts from one dietary niche to another have played major roles in reshaping the evolutionary trajectories of a wide range of vertebrate groups, yet their consequences for morphological disparity and species diversity differ among groups. METHODS: Here, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to examine whether the evolution of nectarivory and other trophic shifts have driven predictable evolutionary pathways in Australasian psittaculid parrots in terms of ecological traits such as body size, beak shape, and dispersal capacity. RESULTS: We found no evidence for an 'early-burst' scenario of lineage or morphological diversification. The best-fitting models indicate that trait evolution in this group is characterized by abrupt phenotypic shifts (evolutionary jumps), with no sign of multiple phenotypic optima correlating with different trophic strategies. Thus, our results point to the existence of weak directional selection and suggest that lineages may be evolving randomly or slowly toward adaptive peaks they have not yet reached. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that the relationship between avian morphology and feeding ecology may be more complex than usually assumed and highlights the importance of adding more flexible models to the macroevolutionary toolbox.

Plumage patterns are good indicators of taxonomic diversity, but not of phylogenetic affinities, in Australian grasswrens Amytornis (Aves: Maluridae).

The grasswrens (Maluridae: Amytornis) are elusive songbirds from the arid zones of Australia. Although some other Australian bird genera are also largely restricted to arid regions, none show the level of localized taxonomic diversity seen in Amytornis. Furthermore, their cryptic plumage patterns provide excellent camouflage but make it difficult to determine whether shared patterns reflect phylogenetic relationships or adaptations to similar terrain. To resolve the systematics and patterns of ecological diversification within Amytornis, we here present the results of a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear multi-locus data for all recognized species and most subspecies, using traditional concatenation-based methods as well as a coalescent-based species-tree approach. Phylogenetic patterns retrieved by the species-tree approach were highly congruent with traditional methods, although branch support was generally higher in concatenation-based analysis, suggesting that species-tree methods may furnish more conservative results. In terms of identifying taxonomic diversity there was good concordance between plumage-based assessments and DNA distances. The same concordance was not found when comparing plumage-based and DNA-based predictions of phylogenetic relationships. Four primary lineages were identified: (a) barbatus; (b) merrotsyi; (c) the textilis complex, purnelli, ballarae, goyderi and housei; and (d) woodwardi, dorotheae, and the striatus complex. There was no robust resolution of relationships between lineages. It appears that in Amytornis, plumage differentiation between discrete populations is taxonomically significant, and not greatly influenced by ecophenotypic variation. However, at the deeper phylogenetic level, similar suites of plumage characters may be phylogenetically uninformative because of homoplasy. The study reveals higher levels of taxonomic diversity in Amytornis than previously recognized, with many taxa being highly localized. Such extensive short range endemism is mainly encountered in poorly-dispersing invertebrates and is unique in Australian birds. The identification here of the additional restricted range taxa has important conservation implications.

Molecular systematics and evolutionary origins of the genus Petaurus (Marsupialia: Petauridae) in Australia and New Guinea.

The glider genus Petaurus comprises a group of arboreal and nocturnal marsupial species from New Guinea and Australia. Molecular data were generated in order to examine phylogenetic relationships among species within the genus and explore the time-scale of diversification and biogeographic history of the genus in Australia and New Guinea. All known species and subspecies of Petaurus (with the exception of P. biacensis) were sequenced for two mitochondrial genes (ND2 and ND4) and one nuclear marker (omega-globin gene). Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the monophyly of the genus relative to other petaurids and showed a sister relationship of P. australis to the rest of Petaurus. The analyses revealed that currently recognised species of Petaurus formed distinct mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) clades. Considerable mtDNA diversity and seven distinct clades were identified within the species P. breviceps, with the distribution of each clade showing no correspondence with the distributional limits of known subspecies. Molecular dating analyses using BEAST suggested an early to mid-Miocene origin (18-24 mya) for the genus. Ancestral area reconstructions, using BayesTraits, did not resolve the location for the centre of origin of Petaurus, but provided evidence for at least one dispersal event from New Guinea to Australia that led to the evolution of extant Australian populations of P. breviceps, P. norfolcensis and P. gracilis. The timing of this dispersal event appears to pre-date the Pleistocene, adding to the growing number of studies that suggest faunal connections occurred between Australia and New Guinea in the Late Miocene to Pliocene period.