Sunday, August 23, 2009

Fear the fuzzy!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Going to the AOU meeting next week?

I heard this talk might be interesting:

ND Sly, AK Townsend, CC Rimmer, JM Townsend, SC Latta, and IJ Lovette

COMPARATIVE PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF HISPANIOLAN ENDEMIC BIRDS

Within-island avian speciation is unlikely on medium-sized islands, yet Hispaniola supports at least four endemic species pairs. Complex geological history is a likely driver of this speciation: Hispaniola was previously configured as separate northern and southern island blocks, the southern block was itself previously divided by an ancient sea channel, and the present-day island contains several isolated montane regions. We surveyed phylogeographic variation in the four endemic species pairs and three non-endemic species using data from mtDNA, nuclear introns, and morphology. Haplotype networks, multilocus coalescent models, and principal components analysis of morphology revealed two patterns: several species show a north-south division at varying levels of differentiation, and two groups show distinct structure between the Tiburon Peninsula and mainland Hispaniola. No within-island structure was detected in the non-endemic species, which are part of recent Caribbean radiations and may have colonized Hispaniola too recently to be affected by older geological events. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that speciation in some taxa occurred on Hispaniola during ancient vicariance events, but that the history of this speciation differs among taxa.

Abstract (5496); Session G11, Fri 14 August, Location: Cohen Hall, Terrace Room, Oral at 11:00

Meeting Abstracts:
http://www.birdmeetings.org/aou2009/files/aou2009-abstracts.pdf
Meeting Program:
http://www.birdmeetings.org/aou2009/files/aou2009-program.pdf