Bennett, K. F. P. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

Diversification and divergence in Myioborus warblers: insights into evolutionary relationships and plumage genetics

Genomic data can provide valuable insights into the evolutionary history of rapidly diversifying groups and the genetic basis of phenotypic differences among lineages. We used whole-genome sequencing of the warbler genus Myioborus to investigate dynamics of its recent diversification in Neotropical mountains. We found that mitochondrial and UCE phylogenies are mostly, but not fully, concordant, and we found phylogenetic support for a pattern of north-to-south and low-to-high elevation colonization in the genus. Within the ornatus-melanocephalus complex, which showed topological incongruence between our phylogenies, we found that genetic structure generally coincides with geographic variation in plumage, although three subspecies with striking plumage differences exhibit low mitochondrial divergence. The hybridizing taxa M. o. chrysops and M. m. bairdi show very shallow genomic differentiation, with marked peaks of divergence. Most of these are shared with other parulid warbler pairs, pointing to broad genomic features, like recombination rate, as the processes shaping these regions. However, other highly differentiated regions were unique to Myioborus, including one containing the gene CCDC91, which is associated with melanin-based plumage differences in several other birds. Lastly, we found higher levels of differentiation on the Z chromosome relative to autosomes, including two putative chromosomal inversions. Together, these results highlight the interplay of deep ancestral divergence, recent hybridization, and shared genomic architecture in shaping the evolution of phenotypic and genomic diversity within Myioborus.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Bird Name-a-thon: Categorizing English bird names using crowdsourcing

Common names of species are important for communicating with the general public. In principle, these names should provide an accessible way to engage with and identify species. The common names of species have historically been labile without standard guidelines, even within a language. Currently, there is no systematic assessment of how often common names communicate identifiable and biologically relevant characteristics about species. This is a salient issue in ornithology, where common names are used more often than scientific names for species of birds in written and spoken English, even by professional researchers. To gain a better understanding of the types of terminology used in the English-language common names of bird species, a group of 85 professional ornithologists and non-professional contributors classified unique descriptors in the common names of all recognized species of birds. In the AvianLexiconAtlas database produced by this work, each species common name is assigned to one of ten categories associated with aspects of avian biology, ecology, or human culture. Across 10,906 species of birds, 89% have names describing the biology of the species, while the remaining 11% of species have names derived from human cultural references, human names, or local non-English languages. Species with common names based on features of avian biology are more likely to be related to each other or be from the same geographic region. The crowdsourced data collection also revealed that many common names contain specialized or historic terminology unknown to many of the data collectors, and we include these terms in a glossary and gazetteer alongside the dataset. The AvianLexiconAtlas can be used as a quantitative resource to assess the state of terminology in English-language common names of birds. Future research using the database can shed light on historical approaches to nomenclature and how people engage with species through their names.

zoology↗