A review of evolutionary research on birds of the New Guinean savannas and closely associated habitats of riparian rainforests, mangroves and grasslands

Multiple trans-Torres Strait colonisations by tree frogs in the

“…Across the Trans-Fly and northern Australia, low genetic divergence has been detected in many taxa (Joseph et al 2019;Peñalba et al 2019), and is not surprising given that the two landmasses have been continuous until very recently. Low genetic divergence is especially pronounced in species associated with open savannah woodlands of northern Australia and the Trans-Fly region (Wüster et al 2005;Doughty et al 2007;Joseph et al 2019). Our data indicate that in New Guinea savannahs L. caerulea is restricted to the Trans-Fly and Central Province and shows very low genetic divergence between both areas and with Cape York Peninsula.…”

“…Our data indicate that in New Guinea savannahs L. caerulea is restricted to the Trans-Fly and Central Province and shows very low genetic divergence between both areas and with Cape York Peninsula. Low genetic divergence across multiple taxa with varying vagility (Wüster et al 2005;Joseph et al 2019;Peñalba et al 2019) strongly indicates that terrestrial savannah corridor(s) of some description existed between Australia and New Guinea until very recently. In most cases (including L. caerulea) genetic data also indicate that savannah lineages have higher genetic diversity and probable centres of origin in Australia, with recent migration and/or isolation of northern outliers in New Guinea (Joseph et al 2019).…”

“…So, while environmental differences may have limited terrestrial biotic dispersal over recent geological times, changing sea levels through the Plio-Pleistocene and formation of land bridges in the region that is now Torres Strait may have periodically aided it (Jones and Torgersen 1988;Reeves et al 2008). Examination of the divergence history of lineages that occur across Australia and New Guinea offers opportunities to understand how past environmental changes have shaped dispersal and diversification across northern Sahul (Fisher et al 2013;Norman et al 2018;Joseph et al 2019;Tallowin et al 2020).…”

“…Some taxa are widespread in New Guinea, but restricted to rainforests in eastern Australia, especially Cape York Peninsula (Irestedt et al 2016;Natusch et al 2020). Conversely, some widespread Australian taxa are confined to limited patches of savannah woodlands in southern and eastern New Guineathe Trans-Fly in central New Guinea, monsoon forest in Central Province in eastern Papua New Guinea, and occasionally through other areas of the Papuan Peninsula (Wüster et al 2005;Williams et al 2008;Joseph et al 2019).…”

Ornithology of New Guinea and the Indo-Pacific Islands: introduction to the special issue ofEmu – Austral Ornithologyand a dedication to Paul Igag

“…One, a focused study of mitochondrial DNA diversity in a suite of New Guinean birds, shows how much remains to be learned even of their basic taxonomy (Jønsson et al 2019). Two others (Joseph et al 2019a(Joseph et al , 2019b emphasise that the birds of New Guinean savannahs, despite having been reasonably well inventoried, are among the least-studied avifaunas in the entire region and still hold many surprises.…”