CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Furnariidae is a Neotropical group of birds with dull coloration and adapted to all biomes. There is great controversy about the systematic position of Furnariidae species, genera and subfamilies. The general objective of this research was to study the variation of morphological, behavioral and molecular characters of furnariids, in order to obtain a phylogeny which synthesizes the relationships between the main taxa that compose this family. For this purpose, we have made a detailed anatomical comparative description of their osteology (74 characters) and syringeal morphology (26 characters); and we have also added molecular (7760 sites) and nest (22 characters) data for the main genera. In this way, this study comprises one of the largest sets of characters of a very diverse Neotropical family of birds. The total evidence cladistic analysis showed that dendrocolaptids should be considered together with furnariids in a monophyletic group. Dendrocolaptidae appeared as paraphyletic because of the position of the genus Sittasomus (Dendrocolaptidae) which was placed as the sister group of the monophyletic group Furnariidae. On the other hand, genus Geositta (Furnariidae) was not placed as an outgroup of Dendrocolaptidae as was suggested by previous studies. None of the subfamilies traditionally recognized were recovered. Synallaxis, Asthenes, Phacellodomus, Geositta and Cinclodes were showed as monophyletic groups in the analyses of the studied species, but Upucerthia, Automolus and Phylidor appeared as poliphyletic or paraphyletic groups. Moreover, each pair of monotipic genera Phleocryptes-Spartonoica, Anumbius-Coryphistera, and Pygarrhichas-Xenops were placed as being sister species. Regarding the evolution of characters, the plesiomorphic state of the scored morphological characters were the ones we have found in dendrocolaptids, in contrast with what would have happened if those characters were mapped in the previous existing molecular phylogenies.