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Avian higher level biogeography: Southern Hemispheric origins or Southern Hemispheric relicts?
Author(s) -
Mayr Gerald
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1365-2699
pISSN - 0305-0270
DOI - 10.1111/jbi.12943
Subject(s) - extant taxon , biogeography , cenozoic , taxon , fossil record , geography , phylogenetic tree , neogene , group (periodic table) , ecology , biology , paleontology , evolutionary biology , biochemistry , structural basin , gene , chemistry , organic chemistry
A recent analysis of a comprehensive phylogenetic data set suggested Southern Hemispheric origins for various higher level taxa of neornithine (crown group) birds. These results contrast with hypotheses derived from the fossil record, with the occurrence of successively branching stem group representatives of many “Southern Hemispheric” bird groups in the early Cenozoic of Europe and North America suggesting relict extant distributions. However, a selective consideration of the fossil record and the merging of extant ranges may have resulted in a skewed picture of the past biogeographical history of birds. For future studies, it is proposed that multiple taxa of successively branching Northern Hemispheric stem group representatives are considered to narrow down the ancestral areas of the crown group representatives.