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Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)

Central to our understanding of the timing of bird evolution is debate about an apparent conflict between fossil and molecular data. A deep age for higher level taxa within Neoaves is evident from molecular analyses but much remains to be learned about the age of diversification in modern bird famil...

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Autores principales: García–R, Juan C., Gibb, Gillian C., Trewick, Steve A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4188725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25291147
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109635
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author García–R, Juan C.
Gibb, Gillian C.
Trewick, Steve A.
author_facet García–R, Juan C.
Gibb, Gillian C.
Trewick, Steve A.
author_sort García–R, Juan C.
collection PubMed
description Central to our understanding of the timing of bird evolution is debate about an apparent conflict between fossil and molecular data. A deep age for higher level taxa within Neoaves is evident from molecular analyses but much remains to be learned about the age of diversification in modern bird families and their evolutionary ecology. In order to better understand the timing and pattern of diversification within the family Rallidae we used a relaxed molecular clock, fossil calibrations, and complete mitochondrial genomes from a range of rallid species analysed in a Bayesian framework. The estimated time of origin of Rallidae is Eocene, about 40.5 Mya, with evidence of intrafamiliar diversification from the Late Eocene to the Miocene. This timing is older than previously suggested for crown group Rallidae, but fossil calibrations, extent of taxon sampling and substantial sequence data give it credence. We note that fossils of Eocene age tentatively assigned to Rallidae are consistent with our findings. Compared to available studies of other bird lineages, the rail clade is old and supports an inference of deep ancestry of ground-dwelling habits among Neoaves.
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spelling pubmed-41887252014-10-10 Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) García–R, Juan C. Gibb, Gillian C. Trewick, Steve A. PLoS One Research Article Central to our understanding of the timing of bird evolution is debate about an apparent conflict between fossil and molecular data. A deep age for higher level taxa within Neoaves is evident from molecular analyses but much remains to be learned about the age of diversification in modern bird families and their evolutionary ecology. In order to better understand the timing and pattern of diversification within the family Rallidae we used a relaxed molecular clock, fossil calibrations, and complete mitochondrial genomes from a range of rallid species analysed in a Bayesian framework. The estimated time of origin of Rallidae is Eocene, about 40.5 Mya, with evidence of intrafamiliar diversification from the Late Eocene to the Miocene. This timing is older than previously suggested for crown group Rallidae, but fossil calibrations, extent of taxon sampling and substantial sequence data give it credence. We note that fossils of Eocene age tentatively assigned to Rallidae are consistent with our findings. Compared to available studies of other bird lineages, the rail clade is old and supports an inference of deep ancestry of ground-dwelling habits among Neoaves. Public Library of Science 2014-10-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4188725/ /pubmed/25291147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109635 Text en © 2014 García-R et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
García–R, Juan C.
Gibb, Gillian C.
Trewick, Steve A.
Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title_full Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title_fullStr Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title_full_unstemmed Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title_short Eocene Diversification of Crown Group Rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae)
title_sort eocene diversification of crown group rails (aves: gruiformes: rallidae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4188725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25291147
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109635
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