The phylogenetic affinities of Crossley's babbler (Mystacornis crossleyi): adding a new niche to the vanga radiation of Madagascar

Abstract

Crossley's babbler (Mystacornis crossleyi) is a passerine endemic to Madagascar. Traditionally, it has been classified as a babbler (Timaliidae), although affinities with warblers and vangas have been suggested. We investigated the phylogenetic affinities of Crossley's babbler using sequence data from two nuclear introns (myoglobin intron 2 and beta-fibrinogen intron 5) and one mitochondrial gene (ND2). We present for the first time (to our knowledge) a molecular phylogeny that confidently places this enigmatic species within the vangas (Vangidae). The inclusion of Crossley's babbler within the vangas adds another foraging niche--gleaning small invertebrates from the ground-to this already large adaptive radiation of songbirds.

Figure 1

Bayesian consensus tree of the combined mixed-model analysis of the three data partitions: total 2369 bp. Numbers above the branches indicate Bayesian posterior probabilities and numbers below indicate bootstrap support under the parsimony optimality criterion and maximum likelihood (ML), respectively. The asterisk indicates a posterior probability of 1.0 or 100 per cent bootstrap support. The symbol ‘¤’ indicates that the maximum parsimony/ML analysis supports (more than 50%) a conflicting topology.