Cicero Carla, Mason Nicholas A, Benedict Lauryn, Rising James D
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States of America.
Current affiliation: Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2020 Jun 19;8:e9249. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9249. eCollection 2020.
The New World sparrows (Passerellidae) are a large, diverse group of songbirds that vary in morphology, behavior, and ecology. Thus, they are excellent for studying trait evolution in a phylogenetic framework. We examined lability versus conservatism in morphological and behavioral traits in two related clades of sparrows (), and assessed whether habitat has played an important role in trait evolution. We first inferred a multi-locus phylogeny which we used to reconstruct ancestral states, and then quantified phylogenetic signal among morphological and behavioral traits in these clades and in New World sparrows more broadly. Behavioral traits have a stronger phylogenetic signal than morphological traits. Specifically, vocal duets and song structure are the most highly conserved traits, and nesting behavior appears to be maintained within clades. Furthermore, we found a strong correlation between open habitat and unpatterned plumage, complex song, and ground nesting. However, even within lineages that share the same habitat type, species vary in nesting, plumage pattern, song complexity, and duetting. Our findings highlight trade-offs between behavior, morphology, and ecology in sparrow diversification.
新大陆麻雀（雀科）是一大类多样化的鸣禽，在形态、行为和生态方面存在差异。因此，它们非常适合在系统发育框架内研究性状进化。我们研究了两个相关麻雀分支形态和行为性状的易变性与保守性，并评估栖息地是否在性状进化中发挥了重要作用。我们首先推断出一个多位点系统发育树，用于重建祖先状态，然后更广泛地量化这些分支以及新大陆麻雀形态和行为性状之间的系统发育信号。行为性状比形态性状具有更强的系统发育信号。具体而言，鸣声二重唱和歌声结构是最保守的性状，筑巢行为似乎在分支内得以维持。此外，我们发现开阔栖息地与无斑纹羽毛、复杂歌声和地面筑巢之间存在很强的相关性。然而，即使在共享相同栖息地类型的谱系中，物种在筑巢、羽毛图案、歌声复杂性和二重唱方面也存在差异。我们的研究结果突出了麻雀多样化过程中行为、形态和生态之间的权衡。
