Re: CUCKOOS & TOURACOS

[João Simões Lopes Filho <jodan99@uol.com.br>]

Doesthe article present some zoogeographical conclusion? I know that fossil
cuculiforms were discovered at Itaborai near Rio de Janeiro (Middle
Palaeocene). Are Cuculiforms originated from South AMerica? From Gondwana?

Joao S Lopes Filho
Rio de Janeiro
----- Original Message -----
From: <darren.naish@port.ac.uk>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 11:47 AM
Subject: CUCKOOS & TOURACOS


> Reading the cuckoo phylogeny paper by Hughes that I mentioned the
> other day (ZJLS 130: 263-307), remembered some other recent papers
> on the same subject. Is worth collating the lot, as the neornithine tree
is
> finally coming together and there are interesting areas of controversy.
>
> Hughes (2000) argues that parasitic cuculids form a clade, and that
> parasitism evolved once in cuculids. Inclusion of _Coccyzus_ - a
> facultative parasite - in this parasitic clade (Hughes' Cuculinae)
> implies that the earliest _Coccyzus_ was an obligate nest parasite like
> other members of its clade (taperins, eudynamins, other coccygins and
> cuculins). Cuculin cuculines are the only cuculids where the nestlings
> eject the host offspring fromthe nest. The non-parasitic, terrestrial
> cuculid clades of both the Old and New Worlds (Carpococcystinae,
> Centropodinae, Neomorphinae, Crotophaginae and Phaenicophaeinae)
> have basal positions on Hughes' tree.
>
> Aragon et al. (2000) used mtDNA to reconstruct cuculid phylogeny. In
> their tree, neomorphines and crotophagines formed a clade and, in
> contrast to Hughes' tree, _Tapera_ and _Dromococcyx_ were close to
> this clade (in the Hughes tree the Taperini is the basal tribe of the
> Cuculinae). Their inclusion of the parasitic _Clamator_ in a clade with
> _Coccyzus_ and some non-parasitic cuckoos led Aragon et al. to argue
> that brood parasitism had evolved in this clade independently of that
> seen in other cuculines. Overall the Hughes and Aragon et al. tree seem
> to agree as to the general picture AND with the traditional view (where
> neomorphines and centropodines are more basal than phaenicophaeines
> and all are less recently evolved than cuculines) - it is in the details,
or,
> in other words, the problematic taxa, that they differ.
>
> Aragon, S., Moller, A.P., Solfer, J.J. and Soler, M. 2000. Molecular
> phylogeny of cuckoos supports a polyphyletic origin of brood
> parasitism. _Journal of Evolutionary Biology_ 12: 495-506.
>
> As noted before, Hughes grouped touracos and hoatzins as sister-taxa,
> and the sister-taxon to Cuculiformes. Further resolution of touraco
> phylogeny has recently been provided by Veron (2000). Veron found
> that extant musophagids fall into two clades - grey touracos
> (_Crinifer_ and _Corythaixoides_) and _Coythaeola_ + turacine-
> bearing touracos (_Tauraco_, _Musophaga_, _Ruwenzorornis_ and
> _Gallirex_) [turacine/touracine is a green pigment exclusive to
> touracos]. Within this phylogeny, _Corythaixoides_ is paraphyletic to
> _Crinifer_ and _Ruwenzorornis_ and _Gallirex_ are closer to
> _Tauraco_ than to _Musophaga_.
>
> Veron, G. 2000. Phylogenie des touracos (Aves, Musophagidae).
> Analyse des caracteres morphologies. _Journal of Zoological
> Systematics and Evolutionary Research_ 37: 39-48.
>
> Where fossils and other neornithine clade would fit into all this would
> be interesting. Are trogons related to the opisthocomiform -
> cuculiform clade? Does the nesting of _Opisthocomus_ within a clade
> where hoatzins and touracos are sister-taxa mean that basal touracos
> had free fingers, like _Opisthocomus_, or is this unique to this genus?
> And is Chandler's hypothesis of an affinity between touracos and
> vulturids and phorusrhacoids untenable in parsimony analysis? Oh
> well, more work to come I suppose.
>
> Wind, rain, wind, rain, wind, rain, and some more wind and rain.
>
> DARREN NAISH
> PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
> School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
> UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
> Burnaby Building
> Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
> Portsmouth UK                          tel: 01703 446718
> P01 3QL
>