Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 11;286(1910):20190122.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0122. Epub 2019 Sep 11.

A Laurasian origin for a pantropical bird radiation is supported by genomic and fossil data (Aves: Coraciiformes)

Jenna M McCullough  1 , Robert G Moyle  2 , Brian T Smith  3 , Michael J Andersen  1
Affiliations

A Laurasian origin for a pantropical bird radiation is supported by genomic and fossil data (Aves: Coraciiformes)

Jenna M McCullough et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

The evolution of pantropically distributed clades has puzzled palaeo- and neontologists for decades regarding the different hypotheses about where they originated. In this study, we explored how a pantropical distribution arose in a diverse clade with a rich fossil history: the avian order Coraciiformes. This group has played a central role in the debate of the biogeographical history of Neoaves. However, the order lacked a coherent species tree to inform study of its evolutionary dynamics. Here, we present the first complete species tree of Coraciiformes, produced with 4858 ultraconserved elements, which supports two clades: (1) Old World-restricted bee-eaters, rollers and ground-rollers; and (2) New World todies and motmots, and cosmopolitan kingfishers. Our results indicated two pulses of diversification: (1) major lineages of Coraciiformes arose in Laurasia approximately 57 Ma, followed by independent dispersals into equatorial regions, possibly due to tracking tropical habitat into the lower latitudes-the Coracii (Coraciidae + Brachypteraciidae) into the Afrotropics, bee-eaters throughout the Old World tropics, and kingfishers into the Australasian tropics; and (2) diversification of genera in the tropics during the Miocene and Pliocene. Our study supports the important role of Laurasia as the geographical origin of a major pantropical lineage and provides a new framework for comparative analyses in this charismatic bird radiation.

Keywords: Coracii; North American gateway hypothesis; avian systematics; historical biogeography; macroevolutionary dynamics; target capture.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

We declare we have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Biogeography and macroevolutionary dynamics of Coraciiformes. (a) Time-calibrated, maximum clade credibility tree showing species-level relationships of Coraciiformes based on 500 ultraconserved elements, fossil calibrations and maximum-likelihood topology constraints. Node ages were estimated in BEAST with three fossil calibrations (electronic supplementary material, table S2), indicated by daggers (†), and two secondary calibrations indicated by asterisks (*). Representative taxa are illustrated (from top to bottom): pitta-like ground-roller (Atelornis pittoides); Oriental dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis); rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus); Cuban tody (Todus multicolor); rufous motmot (Baryphthgenus martii); north Philippine dwarf kingfisher (Ceyx melanurus); belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon); and white-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis). Biogeographical information is summarized from the full results (see electronic supplementary material, figure S9). Branch colours represent the most recent ancestral node's range reconstruction and correspond to the following areas on the map: (a) Nearctic, (b) Caribbean islands, (c) South America, (d) Palaearctic, (e) Africa and Madagascar, (f) Indomalaya, (g) Wallacea and the Philippines, (h) New Guinea and Australia and (i) Oceania. Grey branches indicate a broad distribution of three or more areas. (b) Results from macroevolutionary rate analysis in BAMM. The phylorate plot depicts an inferred core rate shift in Todiramphus. Clade-specific rate through time plots are shown for (a) all Coraciiformes, (b) all Todiramphus and (c) the background rate of Coraciiformes excluding Todiramphus with mean evolutionary rates (λ), respectively. Original artwork by Madison E. Mayfield. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Distribution of coraciiform branching times and palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatological events. White bars indicate the 95% credible intervals of divergence times and mean ages are indicated by a thick black bar for the selected nodes. Estimates of global temperatures throughout the Cenozoic are adapted from Hansen et al. [113]. (Online version in colour.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Lavin M, Luckow M. 1993. Origins and relationships of tropical North America in the context of the Boreotropics hypothesis. Am. J. Bot. 80, 1–14. (10.1002/j.1537-2197.1993.tb13761.x) - DOI
    1. Chanderbali AS, van der Werff H, Renner SS. 2001. Phylogeny and historical biogeography of Lauraceae: evidence from the chloroplast and nuclear genomes. Ann. Mo. Botanical Garden 88, 104 (10.2307/2666133) - DOI
    1. Erwin TL, Stork NE. 1985. The Hiletini, an ancient and enigmatic tribe of Carabidae with a pantropical distribution (Coleoptera). Syst. Entomol. 10, 405–451. (10.1111/j.1365-3113.1985.tb00149.x) - DOI
    1. Moyle RG. 2004. Phylogenetics of barbets (Aves: Piciformes) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 30, 187–200. (10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00179-9) - DOI - PubMed
    1. Moyle RG. 2005. Phylogeny and biogeographical history of Trogoniformes, a pantropical bird order. Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 84, 725–738. (10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00435.x) - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources