Tinamou (Tinamidae) systematics: a preliminary combined analysis of morphology and molecules.

BERTELLI, S.; PORZECANSKI, A.L.

ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL

NEOTROPICAL ORNITHOLOGICAL SOC

Año: 2004 vol. 15 p. 1 - 7

1075-4377

Interest in the evolution of the tinamous (Palaeonathiformes: Tinamidae) derives from the fact that they are primitive among extant birds. In spite of this, very little is known about the phylogeny of this Neotropical group. Two new studies produced phylogenies for the family using external and internal morphology (237 characters) and mitochondrial (1143 bp) and nuclear (1145 bp) DNA sequences, respectively. The two hypotheses had some similarities but also several disagreements: both recovered a clade of aridland tinamous but they disagreed on the monophyly of the forest-dwelling tinamous, as well as on the relationships within these two groups. Here we summarize the previous two studies and combine the morphological and molecular dataset into a single analysis. In the weighted combined hypothesis, the family is divided into two monophyletic groups, one composed of forest taxa, and one of aridland taxa. This is also one of the two alternative hypotheses recovered in unweighted analyses. The combined tree also places Eudromia and Tinamotis as basal within the aridland tinamous, and recovers all traditional genera as monophyletic