TY - JOUR

T1 - Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes

AU - Stiller, Josefin

AU - Feng, Shaohong

AU - Chowdhury, Al-Aabid

AU - Rivas-González, Iker

AU - Duchêne, David A.

AU - Fang, Qi

AU - Deng, Yuan

AU - Kozlov, Alexey

AU - Stamatakis, Alexandros

AU - Claramunt, Santiago

AU - Nguyen, Jacqueline M. T.

AU - Ho, Simon Y. W.

AU - Faircloth, Brant C.

AU - Haag, Julia

AU - Houde, Peter

AU - Cracraft, Joel

AU - Balaban, Metin

AU - Mai, Uyen

AU - Chen, Guangji

AU - Gao, Rongsheng

AU - Zhou, Chengran

AU - Xie, Yulong

AU - Huang, Zijian

AU - Cao, Zhen

AU - Yan, Zhi

AU - Ogilvie, Huw A.

AU - Nakhleh, Luay

AU - Lindow, Bent

AU - Morel, Benoit

AU - Fjeldså, Jon

AU - Hosner, Peter A.

AU - da Fonseca, Rute R.

AU - Petersen, Bent

AU - Tobias, Joseph A.

AU - Székely, Tamás

AU - Kennedy, Jonathan David

AU - Reeve, Andrew Hart

AU - Liker, Andras

AU - Stervander, Martin

AU - Antunes, Agostinho

AU - Tietze, Dieter Thomas

AU - Bertelsen, Mads

AU - Lei, Fumin

AU - Rahbek, Carsten

AU - Graves, Gary R.

AU - Schierup, Mikkel H.

AU - Warnow, Tandy

AU - Braun, Edward L.

AU - Gilbert, M. Thomas P.

AU - Jarvis, Erich D.

AU - Mirarab, Siavash

AU - Zhang, Guojie

PY - 2024/4/1

Y1 - 2024/4/1

N2 - Despite tremendous efforts in the past decades, relationships among main avian lineages remain heavily debated without a clear resolution. Discrepancies have been attributed to diversity of species sampled, phylogenetic method, and the choice of genomic regions 1–3. Here, we address these issues by analyzing genomes of 363 bird species 4 (218 taxonomic families, 92% of total). Using intergenic regions and coalescent methods, we present a well-supported tree but also a remarkable degree of discordance. The tree confirms that Neoaves experienced rapid radiation at or near the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary. Sufficient loci rather than extensive taxon sampling were more effective in resolving difficult nodes. Remaining recalcitrant nodes involve species that challenge modeling due to extreme GC content, variable substitution rates, incomplete lineage sorting, or complex evolutionary events such as ancient hybridization. Assessment of the impacts of different genomic partitions showed high heterogeneity across the genome. We discovered sharp increases in effective population size, substitution rates, and relative brain size following the K–Pg extinction event, supporting the hypothesis that emerging ecological opportunities catalyzed the diversification of modern birds. The resulting phylogenetic estimate offers novel insights into the rapid radiation of modern birds and provides a taxon-rich backbone tree for future comparative studies.

AB - Despite tremendous efforts in the past decades, relationships among main avian lineages remain heavily debated without a clear resolution. Discrepancies have been attributed to diversity of species sampled, phylogenetic method, and the choice of genomic regions 1–3. Here, we address these issues by analyzing genomes of 363 bird species 4 (218 taxonomic families, 92% of total). Using intergenic regions and coalescent methods, we present a well-supported tree but also a remarkable degree of discordance. The tree confirms that Neoaves experienced rapid radiation at or near the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary. Sufficient loci rather than extensive taxon sampling were more effective in resolving difficult nodes. Remaining recalcitrant nodes involve species that challenge modeling due to extreme GC content, variable substitution rates, incomplete lineage sorting, or complex evolutionary events such as ancient hybridization. Assessment of the impacts of different genomic partitions showed high heterogeneity across the genome. We discovered sharp increases in effective population size, substitution rates, and relative brain size following the K–Pg extinction event, supporting the hypothesis that emerging ecological opportunities catalyzed the diversification of modern birds. The resulting phylogenetic estimate offers novel insights into the rapid radiation of modern birds and provides a taxon-rich backbone tree for future comparative studies.

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1

DO - 10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1

M3 - Journal article

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

ER -