Ancient differentiation in the single-island avian radiation of endemic Hispaniolan chat-tanagers (Aves: Calyptophilus)

Abstract

The simple geographic structure of island systems often makes them tractable for studies of the patterns and processes of biological diversification. The Calyptophilus chat-tanagers of Hispaniola are of general evolutionary interest because their multiple lineages might have arisen on a single island, of conservation concern because several isolated populations are nearly extinct, and taxonomically ambiguous because they have been variously lumped or split into one to four species. To explore the context of diversification of the seven extant Calyptophilus populations, we conducted a multilocus coalescent analysis based on sequences of mitochondrial ND2 and three nuclear intron loci. We then compared patterns of phylogeographic genetic variation with the morphological differences that distinguish these populations.