Family tree of Old World flycatchers mapped

The European robin’s closest kinfolk are present in tropical Africa. The European robin is due to this fact not intently associated to the Japanese robin, regardless of their shut similarity in look. That is confirmed by a brand new examine of the Previous World flycatcher household, to which these birds belong. The examine includes 92 per cent of the greater than 300 species on this household.

“The truth that the European and Japanese robins are so similar-looking regardless of not being intently associated is one in all many examples of so-called convergent evolution on this group of birds. Similarities in look can evolve in distant kinfolk, e.g., because of similarities in way of life,” says Per Alström from Uppsala College, who is without doubt one of the researchers behind the examine printed in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

The Previous World flycatcher household includes birds belonging to greater than 300 species which are distributed throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. The household contains not solely flycatchers, but additionally nightingales, chats, wheatears, redstarts, whistling-thrushes, forktails and different unique teams. Twelve species breed in Sweden, of which the European robin, the pied flycatcher and the thrush nightingale are essentially the most well-known. All besides three of those species winter in sub-Saharan Africa or southern Asia.

Researchers from Uppsala College, the College of Gothenburg and the College of Florida have used DNA to reconstruct the household tree of 92 per cent of the species within the Previous World flycatcher household. This examine confirms earlier findings relating to relationships in addition to revealing new, sudden relationships.

“Species which are named flycatchers are positioned on many alternative branches within the household tree, and therefore belong to teams that aren’t intently associated. With respect to the Swedish flycatchers, the pied, collared and red-breasted flycatchers are intently associated to one another, whereas the noticed flycatcher is a extra distant relative.”

Uppsala College has a protracted custom of analysis on flycatchers, particularly on pied and collared flycatchers. The current examine helps the speculation that the bluethroat, which is colloquially referred to as “the nightingale of the Swedish mountains”, has its closest relative within the Himalayas and the mountains of China.

“I by no means stop to be stunned by the various sudden relationships which are revealed by DNA analyses,” says Per Alström

Zhao, M., Burleigh, J.G., Olsson, U., Alström, P. & Kimball, R.T. 2022. A near-complete and time-calibrated phylogeny of the Previous World flycatchers, robins and chats (Aves, Muscicapidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in press (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107646)