The phylogeny and evolution of the avian family Ciconiidae, the storks
Abstract
The avian family Ciconiidae, the storks, is a morphologically and behaviorally distinct group comprising nineteen species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Storks are large and conspicuous birds, and many species thrive in zoos, so the ecology, ethology, and morphology of these birds are well-studied. In the early 1970's, M. Philip Kahl substantially revised stork classification, based primarily on his own extensive and detailed behavioral observations, but his classification is not phylogenetic. A phylogeny of stork species is needed to interpret the existing wealth of comparative data in an historical context.^ I used three data sets to estimate relationships among stork species: 1065 base pairs of cytochrome b sequence, a complete matrix of reciprocal DNA-DNA hybridization distances, and a matrix of behavioral characters which I coded from Phil Kahl's behavioral observations. I included 17 of the 19 stork species in either or both of the molecular data sets, as well as representative species from two families, the Cathartidae (New World Vultures) and Threskiornithidae (ibises/spoonbills) as outgroups. I included 17 stork species in the behavioral data matrix and no outgroup, because comparable data on behavior were not available for any outgroup species.^ Phylogenetic analyses of the three data sets yielded optimal trees that are congruent in all nodes having strong bootstrap support. FITCH analysis of the DNA-DNA hybridization distances and parsimony analysis of the behavioral characters yielded trees with the same general pattern of resolution: Relationships among recently-diverged species are unresolved or resolved with weak bootstrap support, while more distant relationships in the family are resolved with strong support. Parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses of the cytochrome b sequence data yield trees in which relationships among recently-diverged species are resolved with strong bootstrap support, while basal relationships in the family are weakly supported and inconsistent between analyses. I present a biogeographic hypothesis of stork diversification based on the fossil record of storks, DNA-DNA hybridization distances among species, and the optimal tree based on these distances. ^
Subject Area
Biology, Zoology
Recommended Citation
Beth Slikas,
"The phylogeny and evolution of the avian family Ciconiidae, the storks"
(January 1, 1996).
Dissertations available from ProQuest.
Paper AAI9713005.
http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9713005
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