Title
Relationships of song structure to phylogenetic history, habitat, and morphology in the vireos, greenlets, and allies (Passeriformes: Vireonidae)
Date Issued
01 November 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Publisher(s)
Society for the Study of Evolution
Abstract
Acoustic signals show immense variation among passerines, and several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this diversity. In this study, we tested, for the first time, the relationships of song structure to phylogeny, habitat type, and morphology in the vireos and allies (Vireonidae). Every measure of song structure considered in this study had moderate and significant phylogenetic signal. Furthermore, two song-constraining morphological traits, bill shape and body mass, also exhibited significant phylogenetic signal. Song length showed the largest within-clade similarity; longer songs were highly conserved in part of the greenlet (Hylophilus) clade, whereas shorter songs characterized the remaining seven genera. We found no differences in song structure among vireonids living in different habitat types. However, vireonids with shorter, stouter bills and larger bodies sang songs with lower minimum and maximum peak frequency, compared with species with longer, thinner bills and smaller bodies. We conclude that Vireonidae song evolution is driven partially by phylogenetically conserved morphological traits. Our findings support the phylogenetic signal and morphological constraints hypotheses explaining structural diversity in avian acoustic signals.
Start page
2494
End page
2511
Volume
74
Issue
11
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Música
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85092316722
PubMed ID
Source
Evolution
ISSN of the container
00143820
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus