Phylogenomic evidence for multiple losses of flight in ratite birds

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dc.contributor.authorHarshman J.
dc.contributor.authorBraun E.L.
dc.contributor.authorBraun M.J.
dc.contributor.authorHuddleston C.J.
dc.contributor.authorBowie R.C.K.
dc.contributor.authorChojnowski J.L.
dc.contributor.authorHackett S.J.
dc.contributor.authorHan K.-L.
dc.contributor.authorKimball R.T.
dc.contributor.authorMarks B.D.
dc.contributor.authorMiglia K.J.
dc.contributor.authorMoore W.S.
dc.contributor.authorReddy S.
dc.contributor.authorSheldon F.H.
dc.contributor.authorSteadman D.W.
dc.contributor.authorSteppan S.J.
dc.contributor.authorWitt C.C.
dc.contributor.authorYuri T.
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-15T16:02:19Z
dc.date.available2011-05-15T16:02:19Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.description.abstractRatites (ostriches, emus, rheas, cassowaries, and kiwis) are large, flightless birds that have long fascinated biologists. Their current distribution on isolated southern land masses is believed to reflect the breakup of the paleocontinent of Gondwana. The prevailing view is that ratites are monophyletic, with the flighted tinamous as their sister group, suggesting a single loss of flight in the common ancestry of ratites. However, phylogenetic analyses of 20 unlinked nuclear genes reveal a genome-wide signal that unequivocally places tinamous within ratites, making ratites polyphyletic and suggesting multiple losses of flight. Phenomena that can mislead phylogenetic analyses, including long branch attraction, base compositional bias, discordance between gene trees and species trees, and sequence alignment errors, have been eliminated as explanations for this result. The most plausible hypothesis requires at least three losses of flight and explains the many morphological and behavioral similarities among ratites by parallel or convergent evolution. Finally, this phylogeny demands fundamental reconsideration of proposals that relate ratite evolution to continental drift. © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
dc.description.versionArticle
dc.identifier.citationProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
dc.identifier.citation105
dc.identifier.citation36
dc.identifier.issn278424
dc.identifier.other10.1073/pnas.0803242105
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/12416
dc.subjectanimal behavior
dc.subjectarticle
dc.subjectflight
dc.subjectgene sequence
dc.subjectgenome analysis
dc.subjectgenomics
dc.subjecthomoplasy
dc.subjectmorphology
dc.subjectnonhuman
dc.subjectnucleotide sequence
dc.subjectphylogeny
dc.subjectpriority journal
dc.subjectratite
dc.subjectAnimals
dc.subjectBase Sequence
dc.subjectCell Nucleus
dc.subjectDNA
dc.subjectEvolution
dc.subjectFlight, Animal
dc.subjectGenome
dc.subjectMolecular Sequence Data
dc.subjectPalaeognathae
dc.subjectPhylogeny
dc.subjectSequence Alignment
dc.subjectAves
dc.subjectCasuariidae
dc.subjectDromaiidae
dc.subjectPalaeognathae
dc.subjectRheiformes
dc.subjectStruthioniformes
dc.subjectTinamiformes
dc.titlePhylogenomic evidence for multiple losses of flight in ratite birds
dc.typeArticle
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