Molecular evidence suggests radical revision of species limits in the great speciator white-eye genus Zosterops

Phylogenomics of white-eyes, a ‘great speciator’, reveals Indonesian archipelago as the center of lineage diversity

“…The total number of Zosterops species is shown in brackets beside each labeled region on the inset. We adopted del Hoyo et al, 2016 as the baseline taxonomy and incorporated taxonomic revisions to the Afrotropical and Asiatic species as proposed by Martins et al, 2020 and Lim et al, 2019 , respectively (see Supplementary file 2 for the list of recognized species).…”

“…Apart from incomplete geographic sampling, the lack of resolution of the white-eye radiation has largely been a consequence of sparse genomic sampling: most phylogenetic studies of white-eyes have been restricted to one or a few genetic markers, resulting in trees that are plagued by unresolved polytomies, hampering useful evolutionary inference ( Slikas et al, 2000 ; Warren et al, 2006 ; Moyle et al, 2009 ; Oatley et al, 2012 ; Á.S and Joseph, 2013 ; Cox et al, 2014 ; Husemann et al, 2016 ; Linck et al, 2016 ; Round et al, 2017 ; Wickramasinghe et al, 2017 ; Shakya et al, 2018 ; Cai et al, 2019 ; Lim et al, 2019 ; O’Connell et al, 2019 ; Martins et al, 2020 ). Disentangling relationships within rapid and recent radiations, such as white-eyes, requires overcoming the challenges of heterogeneous gene trees due to biological factors such as incomplete lineage sorting ( Edwards et al, 2005 ; Song et al, 2012 ).…”

Opening the door to greater phylogeographic inference in Southeast Asia: Comparative genomic study of five codistributed rainforest bird species using target capture and historical DNA

“…Avian biogeography in continental Southeast Asia, an area including the mainland and continental islands, has a long history of study (Deignan, ; Hughes, Round, & Woodruff, ; Smythies, , ; Wells, ). This base of knowledge has been augmented in the last 15 years by a steady stream of molecular phylogenetic reconstructions that have identified a complex pattern of colonization into, out of, and within the region (e.g., Moyle, Andersen, Oliveros, Steinheimer, & Reddy, ; Oliveros, Field, et al, ; Wang, Kimball, Braun, Liang, & Zhang, ), and which have substantially improved Southeast Asian bird classification (Cai et al, ; Cibois et al, ; Cibois, Kalyakin, Han, & Pasquet, ; Fuchs, Pasquet, Couloux, Fjeldså, & Bowie, ; Lim et al, ; Moyle et al, ; Sangster, Alström, Forsmark, & Olsson, ; Shakya & Sheldon, ; Zhang et al, ). However, phylogenetic studies are imprecise when it comes to identifying the drivers of diversification and extinction, such as changes in gene flow and population sizes, because they span large temporal and spatial scales.…”

“…In Indochina, avian population research has been concentrated mainly on the eastern extension of the Himalayans and the southwestern Chinese mountain systems (Fuchs, Ericson, & Pasquet, ; Liu et al, ; Päckert et al, ; Qu et al, ; Zou, Lim, Marks, Moyle, & Sheldon, ), and on geographic variation and taxonomy at local levels (Fuchs & Zuccon, ; Garg et al, ; Mahood et al, ). Only a few studies have investigated species structure across the entirety of Indochina (e.g., Dong et al, ; Fuchs, Ericson, Bonillo, Couloux, & Pasquet, ; Round et al, ) or across the Isthmus of Kra, which joins Indochina and Sundaland (Dejtaradol et al, ; Lim et al, ; Manawatthana, Laosinchai, Onparn, Brockelman, & Round, ), and all of these studies have suffered from insufficient geographic sampling. In Sundaland, phylogeographic research on birds has focused primarily on Borneo, where sampling is relatively good compared to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Java (Sheldon, Lim, & Moyle, ).…”

Contrasting trajectories of morphological diversification on continents and islands in the Afrotropical white‐eye radiation

“…100 species (van Balen, 2019), including many exceptional colonizers (Melo, Warren, & Jones, 2011; Phillimore et al., 2008; Slikas, Jones, Derrickson, & Fleischer, 2000; Warren et al., 2006). Although a disproportionate number of species occur on islands (Moreau, 1957), recent studies have highlighted increased continental species diversity (Lim et al., 2019; Martins et al., 2020). Overall, the Zosterops clade has the highest net diversification rate of any bird lineage, and one of the highest among vertebrates (Jetz, Thomas, Joy, Hartmann, & Mooers, 2012; Moyle et al, 2009).…”