Total-evidence dating and the phylogenetic affinities of early fossil passerines

Abstract

Passeriformes is the most diverse and globally widespread order of living birds. However, little work has been done on the phylogenetic relationships within their fossil record. Recent advances in total-evidence phylogenetic methods have improved topological and age estimation by using morphological, molecular and temporal data. This provides the opportunity to investigate the phylogenetic affinities of five recently described passerines from the early Oligocene of Europe, including some of the most complete and oldest passerine fossils described to date. We compare maximum parsimony, non-clock Bayesian inference, and total-evidence tip-dating Bayesian analysis to estimate relationships and divergence times of the fossil passerines. We find Wieslochia weissi, Crosnoornis nargizia and NT-LBR-0014 form a clade within Tyranni (suboscines) either in the stem or within Old-World suboscines (Eurylaimides). Jamna szybiaki is recovered as the sister lineage of crown Passeriformes. We confirmed the oscine affinities of Resoviaornis jamrozi. Its precise position within Passeri remains ambiguous, but affinities within Corvides or Passerides may be more likely considering the biogeographic history of the group. We emphasize the importance of an informative tree age prior in total-evidence dating analyses and appeal for the further development of models for phylogenetic inference using morphology.

Keywords:

• ornithology
• phylogenetics
• palaeontology
• Passeriformes
• Bayesian inference
• total-evidence dating

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

For helpful discussions and methodological guidance, we thank D. de Carle, D. Evans, S. Kvist and T. Simões. We are grateful to G. Mayr, A. Louchart and N. Tourment for providing photos of specimens. This manuscript was much improved by comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers.

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2024.2356086.

Associate Editor: Richard Butler

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NSERC PGS-D (PGSD3-547147-2020) to TLM and an NSERC Discovery grant to SC (RGPIN-2018-06747).