Biogeography of the Turdidae Family (Aves: Passeriformes)

DANTUR, ANA GABRIELA; BERTELLI, SARA; ALEMIDA, FRANCISCA CUNHA; ARIAS, J. SALVADOR

Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul

Congreso; II Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2023

Neotropical Ornithological Society

The Turdidae family is a diverse group of Passerine birds (around 170 species), distributed all over the world (except Antarctica). Its origins date back to the early Miocene (~ 19 Ma). Numerous studies have been carried out concerning the biogeography of the different groups of this family. Most of these are narrative in nature, and some use quantitative methods based on predefined areas (ruling out the explicit distribution of terminals). Our work aims to carry out a biogeographical analysis of the Turdidae family using a dated Bayesian tree, created using publicly available DNA data of 158 species of Turdidae. For this analysis, the explicit distribution ranges (that is, specimen localities) of each of the species included in the tree were used and optimized using a diffusion model that considers the spherical nature of earth, as well as continental drift and a paleo-landscape model. Our results show that the geographic origin of the family was most probably around the western palearctic region. Several of the most important groups had restricted geographic origins, such as the genera [Myadestes] (Central North America) and [Zoothera] (Southeast Asia). For [Turdus] (the most diverse genus) it was possible to identify a point of origin, also around the Western Palearctic Region. One of the most common dispersal patterns observed was departing from Europe to colonize different regions of the planet. These results offer a level geographic of detail absent from previous analysis.