Proposal (597) to South American Classification Committee

Modify linear sequence of species in Dendrocincla

Effect on SACC: This would make a minor change in the species sequence in Dendrocincla to reflect recent research.

Background: Our current sequence, a traditional one, is as follows:

Dendrocincla tyrannina Tyrannine Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla fuliginosa Plain-brown Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla turdina Plain-winged Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla merula White-chinned Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla homochroa Ruddy Woodcreeper

New information: Derryberry et al. (2011) sampled several mitochondrial and nuclear loci and 285 of 293 species in the Furnariidae to produce a comprehensive phylogeny. The portion of the tree that contains Dendrocincla is pasted in below:

Weir & Price (2011) independently studied relationships in the genus with multiple mitochondrial and nuclear genes, and many additional subspecies taxa. They produced the following tree, which was essentially congruent with that of Derryberry et al. (2011) except that their sampling of subspecies currently in D. fuliginosa was much greater (revealing potential paraphyly with Middle American D. anabatina!):

The monophyly of the genus was confirmed, but relationships within the genus differed from traditional views. That D. merula and D. tyrannina were sister species was especially surprising to me, although seemingly anomalous biogeographical results are not new in this family – recall the sister relationship of Drymornis and Drymotoxeres. Using the convention of least-diverse branch first, and NW to SE arrangement of sister taxa or allospecies in a superspecies, a revised sequence would be:

Dendrocincla tyrannina Tyrannine Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla merula White-chinned Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla homochroa Ruddy Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla fuliginosa Plain-brown Woodcreeper
Dendrocincla turdina Plain-winged Woodcreeper

Analysis: Assuming the trees of Derryberry et al. (2011) and Weir & Price reflect the true phylogeny, then this is the only linear sequence that mirrors those findings.

Recommendation: This is a minor adjustment to accommodate recent findings, and I see no reason not to vote YES.

Literature Cited:

DERRYBERRY, E., S. CLARAMUNT, G. DERRYBERRY, R. T. CHESSER, J. CRACRAFT, A. ALEIXO, J. PÉREZ-ÉMAN, J. V. REMSEN, JR., AND R. T. BRUMFIELD. 2011. Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65: 2973–2986.

WEIR, J. T., AND M. PRICE. 2011. Andean uplift promotes lowland speciation through vicariance and dispersal in Dendrocincla woodcreepers. Molecular Ecology 21: 4550-4563.

Van Remsen, October 2013

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Comments from Stiles: “YES. In keeping with other changes in generic sequences to better reflect genetic relationships.”

Comments from Zimmer: “YES, to conform to the latest genetic data. As an aside, I think that future research into species-limits within both the merula and fuliginosa groups will reveal the existence of multiple species-level taxa. I base this primarily on observed vocal differences within each group. Also, given the vocal similarities of Middle American anabatina to some of the subspecies in the fuliginosa group, the potential paraphyly revealed by Derryberry et al. (2011) does not surprise me much.”

Comments from Pacheco: “YES. De acordo com o pequeno ajuste sugerido.”

Comments from Jaramillo: “YES – this change in the linear sequence is a better fit to current data.”