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Type: Articles
Published: 2012-09-04
Page range: 1–16
Abstract views: 44
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Genetic and morphological data support placement of Myrmotherula gularis (Spix) in the monotypic genus Rhopias Cabanis and Heine (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae)

Laboratório de Dinâmica Evolutiva e Sistemas Complexos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, Caixa Postal 19020, CEP 81531-990, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, Caixa Postal 19020, CEP 81531-990, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
Laboratório de Dinâmica Evolutiva e Sistemas Complexos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, Caixa Postal 19020, CEP 81531-990, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, CEP 81531-990, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Grupo Especial de Estudo e Proteção do Ambiente Aquático do Rio Grande do Sul, Rua Tiradentes, 2247, CEP 96010-165, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Laboratório de Aves Aquáticas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Campus Carreiros, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG), Caixa Postal 474, CEP 96201-900, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Laboratório de Dinâmica Evolutiva e Sistemas Complexos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, Caixa Postal 19020, CEP 81531-990, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
Aves Antwren Musculus vocalis ventralis phylogeny syrinx Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Recent DNA-based phylogenetic analyses of the family Thamnophilidae have shown that the genus Myrmotherula is polyphyletic. Traditional plumage-based taxonomy has been misleading in terms of identifying independently evolving lineages within the complex. Here, we integrate a molecular phylogeny with morphometric information and ancestral reconstruction of syringeal character states of the Musculi vocales ventrales, to investigate the taxonomic position of M. gularis, a species for which phylogenetic affinities have long been uncertain. We show that M. gularis represents a long branch in the tribe Thamnophilini that is not closely related to any other member of the Myrmotherula complex. Its relationships within the tribe remain uncertain because of the lack of phylogenetic resolution at the base of the tribe. M. gularis shares a derived character state of the M. vocalis ventralis with Taraba, Hypoedaleus, and Mackenziaena, which supports a close relationship between M. gularis and the large antshrikes. M. gularis can be diagnosed from Myrmotherula and Epinecrophylla by this condition of its M. vocalis ventralis, and from Isleria by plumage and other morphological traits. The phylogenetic and morphological distinctiveness of M. gularis does not warrant merging it into any other genus. We propose that this species be placed in a monotypic genus, for which the available name Rhopias applies.

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