Phylogénie des touracos (Aves, Musophagidae). Analyse des caractères morphologiques

Phylogeny of turacos (Aves, Musophagidae). Analysis of morphological characters
A cladistic analysis of the 23 species of turacos (Musophagidae) using 34 morphological characters produces, after successive weighting, 4 shortest-length trees (consistency index = 0.76) that present two major clades: the first one with 'grey' turacos (genus Crinifer, Corythaixoides ), the other one with the great blue turaco (genus Corythaeola ) and the turacine bearers turacos (genus Tauraco , Musophaga , Ruwenzorornis , Gallirex ). This result also suggests that the species ' persa ' is not valid; T. schalowi , T. livingstonii , T. corythaix which were included in this species are more closely related to T. fisheri and T. schuettii than they are to T. persa . The polymorphism of these green turacos is also discussed. Ruwenzorornis johnstoni and Gallirex porphyreolophus do not belong to the Tauraco clade nor to the Musophaga clade, but they are closer to the first than to the second. The species Corythaixoides leucogaster is closer to the Crinifer species than to the other Corythaixoides species.