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Congruent Avian Phylogenies Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA Sequences

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Abstract

Recent molecular studies addressing the phylogenetic relationships of avian orders have had conflicting results. While studies using nuclear DNA sequences tend to support traditional taxonomic views, also supported by morphological data [(paleognaths (galloanseres (all other birds)))], with songbirds forming a clade within Neoaves (all other birds), analyses with complete mtDNA genomes have resulted in topologies that place songbirds as one of the earliest-diverging avian lineages. Considering that over half of the extant bird species are songbirds, these different results have very different implications for our understanding of avian evolution. We analyzed data sets comprising nearly 4 kb of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (complete 12S, ND1, ND2, and cytochrome b) plus 600 bp of the nuclear gene c-mos for 15 birds that were chosen to represent all major avian clades and to minimize potential long-branch attraction problems; we used a partition-specific maximum likelihood approach. Our results show congruence with respect to the ingroup among phylogenies obtained with mtDNA and the nuclear gene c-mos, separately or combined. The data sets support a traditional avian taxonomy, with paleognaths (ratites and tinamous) occupying a basal position and with songbirds more derived and forming a monophyletic group. We also show that, for mtDNA studies, turtles may be a better outgroup for birds than crocodilians because of their slower rate of sequence evolution.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF Grant DEB 9726427 and a Max Planck Society postdoctoral fellowship (J.G.-M.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology—Vogelwarte Radolfzell, Schlossalleé 2, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany

    Jaime García-Moreno

  2. Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Constance, Germany

    Jaime García-Moreno

  3. Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston MA 02215, USA

    Michael D. Sorenson

  4. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor MI 48109-1079, USA

    David P. Mindell

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  1. Jaime García-Moreno
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  2. Michael D. Sorenson
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  3. David P. Mindell
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Correspondence to Jaime García-Moreno.

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García-Moreno, J., Sorenson, M.D. & Mindell, D.P. Congruent Avian Phylogenies Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA Sequences . J Mol Evol 57, 27–37 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-002-2443-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-002-2443-9

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