Molecular Systematics of the Malagasy Babblers (Passeriformes: Timaliidae) and Warblers (Passeriformes: Sylviidae), Based on Cytochrome b and 16S rRNA Sequences

A review of the recent advances in the systematics of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea

“…The speciose genera Apalis, Cisticola and Prinia comprise the core of the family (Sibley and Monroe, 1990). Several later studies have largely corroborated Sibley and Monroe's (1990) circumscription of Cisticolidae (Cibois et al, 1999;Sefc et al, 2003;Beresford et al, 2005;Alström et al, 2006;Nguembock et al, 2007Nguembock et al, , 2008Nguembock et al, , 2012Johansson et al, 2008a;Alström et al, 2011c;Fregin et al, 2012). However, these later studies have also shown that the genera Bathmocercus, Eremomela, Neomixis, Orthotomus, Poliolais and Scepomycter, which were placed in Sylviidae by Sibley and Monroe (1990), belong to Cisticolidae.…”

“…Cibois et al, 1999Helbig and Seibold, 1999;Sheldon et al, 2005;Moyle and Marks, 2006;Nguembock et al, 2007;Fregin et al, 2009;Gelang et al, 2009;Alström et al, 2011aAlström et al, , b, 2013Moyle et al, 2012;Olsson et al, 2013a). The first comprehensive study of the whole superfamily was based on one nuclear and one mitochondrial sequence.…”

Molecular phylogeography reveals island colonization history and diversification of western Indian Ocean sunbirds (Nectarinia: Nectariniidae)

“…Endemic Malagasy songbirds (Cibois et al, 1999(Cibois et al, , 2001 and nonpasserine birds (Fjeldsa a et al, 1999;Johnson et al, 2000;Kirchman et al, 2001), as well as tortoises (Caccone et al, 1999), tenrecs (Douady et al, 2002), and primates (Marivaux et al, 2001;Martin, 2000;Yoder et al, 1996), all probably post-date the separation of Madagascar from Africa and Greater India and arrived in Madagascar by dispersal. Nonetheless, they all show long histories of isolation on the island, and probably diverged from continental forms in the region of 9-80 Ma.…”

“…The suboscine asities and oscine vangas may represent mid-Tertiary colonizations of Madagascar that may have coincided with the appearance of sea mount stepping stones in the Mozambique Channel at approximately 45-26 Ma (Fjeldsa a et al, 1999). The ancestor of the endemic Malagasy songbird radiation represented by the genera Bernieria, Xanthomixis, and Hartertula is posited to have colonized Madagascar more recently, probably 9-17 Ma (Cibois et al, 1999(Cibois et al, , 2001). Whether we apply the sunbird mtDNA clock or the 2% cytb clock, two points are clear.…”

A phylogeny of Chinese species in the genus Phrynocephalus (Agamidae) inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

“…Each nucleotide was treated as an unordered character with four alternative states, and gaps were considered as missing data in all analyses. Data were treated with equal weight for all analyses (Allard and Carpenter, 1996;Cibois et al, 1999;Kjer, 1995). For all phylogenetic analyses, both T. sanguinolentus and L. caucasia were used as outgroups.…”