New perspectives on the origin and diversification of Africa's forest avifauna |
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Authors: | Jon Fjeldså , Rauri C. K. Bowie |
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Affiliation: | Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark;and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.;DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa |
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Abstract: | The use of DNA sequence data in systematic studies has brought about a revolution in our understanding of avian relationships and when combined with digitized distributional data, has facilitated new interpretations about the origins of diverse clades of the African avifauna including its diversification up through the Tertiary until the present. Here we review recent studies with special reference to Africa's forest avifauna and specifically comment on the putative origins of 'hotspots' of endemism in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and in the Cape Region of South Africa. Intriguingly, both these areas appear to have retained populations of relict taxa since the mid-tertiary thermal optimum and at the same time have been centres of recent species differentiation. |
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Keywords: | Africa avifauna speciation biogeography evolution endemism |
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