Data from: Hybrid origin of Audubon's warbler

AbstractSeveral animal species have recently been shown to have hybrid origins, but no avian examples have been documented with molecular evidence. We investigate whether the Audubon's warbler, one of four visually distinct species in the yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata) complex, may have originated through hybridization between two other species in this group, the myrtle warbler and black-fronted warbler. Analysis of nuclear AFLP and sequence markers shows that Audubon's warblers are genetically intermediate, and carry a mixture of alleles otherwise found only in one or the other of their putative parental species. Audubon's warblers also carry two deeply divergent mitochondrial DNA lineages, each shared with only one putative parental form. Broad clines between Audubon's and black-fronted warblers in AFLP markers call into question the validity of these two forms as full species; nevertheless, our results suggest that the Audubon’s warbler likely originated through hybridization between two long-diverged species. It is likely that more cases of avian species of hybrid origin will be revealed by surveys of variation in nuclear DNA and other traits., Usage notesAFLP data for four species of yellow-rumped warblersAFLP data collected by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis on a LiCor 4300 analyzer, and scored manually using Saga software. Samples were collected during the breeding season throughout the range of the species complex in 2001-2007; all individuals in the AFLP dataset are male.AFLPBrelsfordetal2011.csv