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Type: Article
Published: 2014-04-14
Page range: 501–522
Abstract views: 75
PDF downloaded: 29

Relicts from Tertiary Australasia: undescribed families and subfamilies of songbirds (Passeriformes) and their zoogeographic signal

Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, PO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia.
National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales 2450 Australia
taxonomy nomenclature songbirds family-group taxa New Guinea Australia zoogeography

Abstract

A number of hitherto unrecognized, deeply divergent taxa of Australasian songbirds have been revealed by DNA sequence studies in the last decade. Differentiation among them is at levels equivalent to family and subfamily rank among songbirds generally. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to name and describe eleven of them formally under Articles 13.1, 13.2, 16.1 and 16.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature so that they are made available for use in zoology. The taxa are: families Oreoicidae, Eulacestomatidae, Rhagologidae, Ifritidae and Melampittidae, and subfamilies Pachycareinae, Oreoscopinae, Toxorhamphinae, Oedistomatinae, Peltopsinae and Lamproliinae. The families to which the subfamilies belong are documented. Morphological and behavioural traits of the new family-group taxa are discussed; reasons for taxonomic rankings are summarized; and grounds for the geographic origin of corvoid songbirds, to which all the new families belong, are briefly addressed. One new genus,Megalampitta in Melampittidae, is also described.