Data from: A molecular genetic time scale demonstrates Cretaceous origins and multiple diversification rate shifts within the order Galliformes (Aves)

The phylogeny of Galliformes (landfowl) has been studied extensively;
however, the associated chronologies have been criticized recently due to
misplaced or misidentified fossil calibrations. As a consequence, it is
unclear whether any crown-group lineages arose in the Cretaceous and
survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg; 65.5 Ma) mass extinction. Using
Bayesian phylogenetic inference on an alignment spanning 14,539 bp of
mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data, four fossil calibrations, and
a combination of uncorrelated lognormally distributed relaxed-clock and
strict-clock models, we inferred a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny for
225 of the 291 extant Galliform taxa. These analyses suggest that crown
Galliformes diversified in the Cretaceous and that three-stem lineages
survived the K–Pg mass extinction. Ideally, characterizing the tempo and
mode of diversification involves a taxonomically complete phylogenetic
hypothesis. We used simple constraint structures to incorporate 66
data-deficient taxa and inferred the first taxon-complete phylogenetic
hypothesis for the Galliformes. Diversification analyses conducted on
10,000 timetrees sampled from the posterior distribution of candidate
trees show that the evolutionary history of the Galliformes is best
explained by a rate-shift model including 1–3 clade-specific increases in
diversification rate. We further show that the tempo and mode of
diversification in the Galliformes conforms to a three-pulse model, with
three-stem lineages arising in the Cretaceous and inter and intrafamilial
diversification occurring after the K–Pg mass extinction, in the
Paleocene–Eocene (65.5–33.9 Ma) or in association with the
Eocene–Oligocene transition (33.9 Ma).