New Paper (Shorebird pre-K/T divergences)

[Michael Habib <mhabib5@jhmi.edu>]

It does not look like anyone has posted this yet; I presume some on the 
list will find it interesting:

Phylogenetic relationships and divergence times of Charadriiformes 
genera: multigene evidence for the Cretaceous origin of at least 14 
clades of shorebirds

Baker AJ, Pereira SL, Paton TA.  BIOLOGY LETTERS 3 (2): 205-209 APR 22 
2007

Abstract:
Comparative study of character evolution in the shorebirds is presently 
limited because the phylogenetic placement of some enigmatic genera 
remains unclear. We therefore used Bayesian methods to obtain a 
well-supported phylogeny of 90 recognized genera using 5 kb of 
mitochondrial and nuclear sequences. The tree comprised three major 
clades: Lari (gulls, auks and allies plus buttonquails) as sister to 
Scolopaci (sandpipers, jacanas and allies), and in turn sister to 
Charadrii (plovers, oystercatchers and allies), as in previous 
molecular studies. Plovers and noddies were not recovered as 
monophyletic assemblages, and the Egyptian plover Pluvianus is 
apparently not a plover. Molecular dating using multiple fossil 
constraints suggests that the three suborders originated in the late 
Cretaceous between 79 and 102 Mya, and at least 14 lineages of modern 
shorebirds survived the mass extinction at the K/T boundary. Previous 
difficulties in determining the phylogenetic relationships of enigmatic 
taxa reflect the fact that they are well-differentiated relicts of old, 
genus-poor lineages. We refrain from suggesting systematic revisions 
for shorebirds at this time because gene trees may fail to recover the 
species tree when long branches are connected to deep, shorter 
branches, as is the case for some of the enigmatic taxa.

Cheers,

--Mike H.