Data for: Phylogenomic analyses reveal non-monophyly of the antbird genera Herpsilochmus and Sakesphorus (Thamnophilidae), with description of a new genus for Herpsilochmus sellowi

The family Thamnophilidae is a species-rich Neotropical radiation of
passerine birds. Current classification of its 235 species is mostly based
on morphological similarities, but recent studies integrating
comprehensive phenotypic and phylogenetic data have redefined taxonomic
limits of several taxa. Here, we assess generic relationships of
Herpsilochmus, Sakesphorus, Thamnophilus, Biatas, and Dysithamnus using
DNA sequences from the mitochondrion, nuclear exons, and ultraconserved
elements (UCEs), with further attention to interspecific relationships
within Herpsilochmus. We show that Herpsilochmus and Sakesphorus are not
monophyletic. We resolve H. sellowi as a deep-branch sister species to the
monotypic genus Biatas and S. cristatus as sister to a clade comprising
Herpsilochmus sensu stricto and Dysithamnus. These results are consistent
across loci, obtained via concatenation and coalescent-based analyses, and
supported by likelihood-ratio tests of the distribution of our sampled
coalescent histories. The phenotypic distinctiveness of both H. sellowi
and Biatas argues against merging them into a single genus. Because no
generic name is available for H. sellowi, we describe a monotypic genus.
The polyphyly of Sakesphorus warrants recognition of the available generic
name Sakesphoroides for the distinctive and monotypic S. cristatus.
Furthermore, we recover six well-supported species groups within
Herpsilochmus sensu stricto. Within the context of the family as a whole,
the ubiquity of long terminal branches representing monotypic genera
points to extinction events among ancestors of these lineages. We suggest
that retention of ancestral characters or random genetic drift coupled
with extensive extinction could explain the high degree of morphological
and ecological similarity across these taxa, but we highlight the
potential role of the environment in driving adaptive phenotypic
convergence. Finally, our results send a cautionary message against the
blind use of phylogenies containing imputed data based on taxonomy due to
the increasingly frequent mismatches between traditional taxonomic
classification and molecular phylogenies.