Biogeography of the Turdidae Family (Aves: Passeriformes)

DANTUR, MARIA GABRIELA; BERTELLI, SARA; FRANCISCA CUNHA ALMEIDA; ARAGON, R.

Gramado

Congreso; II Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2023

The Turdidae family is a diverse group of Passerine birds (around 170 species), distributedall 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 differentgroups of this family. Most of these are narrative in nature, and some use quantitativemethods based on predefined areas (ruling out the explicit distribution of terminals). Ourwork aims to carry out a biogeographical analysis of the Turdidae family using a datedBayesian tree, created using publicly available DNA data of 158 species of Turdidae. Forthis analysis, the explicit distribution ranges (that is, specimen localities) of each of thespecies included in the tree were used and optimized using a diffusion model that considersthe spherical nature of earth, as well as continental drift and a paleo-landscape model. Ourresults show that the geographic origin of the family was most probably around Greenland.Several of the most important groups had restricted geographic origins, such as the genera[Myadestes] (Central North America) and [Zoothera] (Southeast Asia). For [Turdus] (themost diverse genus) it was possible to identify a point of origin around the WesternPalearctic Region. One of the most common dispersal patterns observed was departing fromEurope to colonize different regions of the planet. These results offer a level of geographicdetail absent from previous analysis.