The order Passeriformes (''perching birds'') comprises extant species diversity comparable to that of living mammals. For over a decade, a single phylogenetic hypothesis based on DNA-DNA hybridization has provided the primary framework for numerous comparative analyses of passerine ecological and behavioral evolution and for tests of the causal factors accounting for rapid radiations within the group. We report here a strongly supported phylogenetic tree based on two single-copy nuclear gene sequences for the most complete sampling of passerine families to date. This tree is incongruent with that derived from DNA-DNA hybridization, with half of the nodes from the latter in conflict and over a third of the conflicts significant as assessed under maximum likelihood. Our historical framework suggests multiple waves of passerine dispersal from Australasia into Eurasia, Africa, and the New World, commencing as early as the Eocene, essentially reversing the classical scenario of oscine biogeography. The revised history implied by these data will require reassessment of comparative analyses of passerine diversification and adaptation.M ajor lineages of the Ϸ5,739 species of passerine birds (1) have diversified on all continents and now occupy nearly all terrestrial ecosystems. The songbirds (oscines, suborder Passeri) alone comprise nearly half of all extant avian species and represent the largest identifiable radiation of birds (2), encompassing a staggering ecological and behavioral diversity. The foundation for understanding passerine diversification and for integrating the spatial, ecological, and temporal history of the group is a comprehensive and robust phylogenetic hypothesis. A decade ago, in a pioneering work, Sibley and Ahlquist (3) used DNA-DNA hybridization to produce the first large-scale phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds and suggested a specific temporal history for passerine diversification. Despite oftenvoiced concerns about the robustness of this phylogeny (colloquially termed the ''Tapestry'' after its appearance on the wall at an ornithological meeting), it has provided a framework for numerous historical analyses of passerine ecology (4), behavior (5), and diversification (6, 7), and continues to fuel the search for explanations of passerine diversity (8).Recently, studies have begun to contradict aspects of the DNA hybridization hypothesis for passerines (ref. 9; citations in ref. 10). These investigations, however, used relatively short gene sequences and, more importantly, limited taxon sampling across passerines; thus the phylogenetic, biogeographic, and temporal interpretations of the radiation were incomplete, and broad tests of the DNA hybridization tree were not possible. Here we analyze 4,126 aligned positions of the nuclear genes RAG-1 and -2 from 144 passerine species in 45 families, including representatives of all but one family recognized by current taxonomy (1). We find substantial support for many portions of the passerine tree, as well as quantitative evidence for the re...

Molecular and morphological data were used to derive a phylogenetic hypothesis for the Eurylaimides, an Old World bird group now known to be distributed pantropically, and to investigate the evolution and biogeography of the group. Phylogenetic results indicated that the Eurylaimides consist of two monophyletic groups, the pittas (Pittidae) and the broadbills (Eurylaimidae sensu lato), and that the broadbills consist of two highly divergent clades, one containing the sister genera Smithornis and Calyptomena, the other containing Pseudocalyptomena graueri, Sapayoa aenigma, the asity genera Philepitta and Neodrepanis, and five Asian genera. Our results indicate that over a ,10 million year time span in the early Tertiary, the Eurylaimides came to inhabit widely disjunct tropical regions and evolved disparate morphology, diet, and breeding behavior. Biogeographically, although a southern origin for the lineage is likely, time estimates for major lineage splitting do not correspond to Gondwanan vicariance events, and the biogeographic history of the crown clade is better explained by Laurasian climatic and geological processes. In particular, the timing and phylogenetic pattern suggest a likely Laurasian origin for the sole New World representative of the group, Sapayoa aenigma.