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Indo-Australian Pitta biogeography, speciation & diversification

To: "" <>
Subject: Indo-Australian Pitta biogeography, speciation & diversification
From: colin trainor <>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 06:36:44 +0930
Irestedt, M, Fabre, P-H, Batalha-Filho, H, Jønsson, KA, Roselaar, CS, 
Sangster, G & Ericson, PGP 2013. The spatio-temporal colonization 
and diversification across the Indo-Pacific by a ‘great speciator’ 
(Aves, Erythropitta erythrogaster). Proc. R. Soc. London B 280: 20130309
 (in 
press).http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1759/20130309.full.pdf

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 biogeographic 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 may have promoted gene flow only locally. 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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