Data from: Phylogeny and biogeography of the core babblers (Aves: Timaliidae)

The avian family Timaliidae is a species rich and morphologically diverse component of African and Asian tropical forests. The morphological diversity within the family has attracted interest from ecologists and evolutionary biologists, but systematists have long suspected that this diversity might also mislead taxonomy, and recent molecular phylogenetic work has supported this hypothesis. We produced and analyzed a dataset of six genes and almost 300 individuals to assess the evolutionary history of the family. Although phylogenetic analysis required extensive adjustment of program settings, we ultimately produced a well-resolved phylogeny for the family. The resulting phylogeny provided strong support for major subclades within the family but extensive paraphyly of genera. Only three genera represented by more than three species were monophyletic. Biogeographic reconstruction indicated a mainland Asian origin for the family and most major clades. Colonization of Africa, Sundaland, and the Philippines occurred relatively late in the family’s history and was mostly unidirectional. Several putative babbler genera, such as Robsonius, Malia, Leonardina, and Micromacronus are only distantly related to the Timaliidae.

鸟类类群画眉科（Timaliidae）是非洲与亚洲热带森林中物种丰度颇高、形态多样性极为丰富的类群。该科内部的形态多样性不仅吸引了生态学家与进化生物学家的广泛关注，分类学家们长期以来也担忧这类多样性可能会误导分类学研究，而近期的分子系统发育研究证实了这一推测。本研究构建并分析了涵盖6个基因位点与近300个个体样本的数据集，以解析该科的演化历史。尽管系统发育分析过程中需要对程序参数进行大量调试调整，我们最终仍为该科构建了分辨率极高的系统发育树。所得系统发育树为该科内的主要演化支提供了强有力的支持，但同时也揭示了属级分类单元广泛的并系现象。在物种数超过3的属中，仅有3个属为单系群。生物地理重建结果显示，该科以及绝大多数主要演化支的起源地均为亚洲大陆。该科向非洲、巽他陆架区以及菲律宾群岛的拓殖事件发生时间相对较晚，且整体以单向拓殖为主。数个被暂定为画眉类的属，如Robsonius、Malia、Leonardina与Micromacronus，与画眉科的亲缘关系实则极为疏远。