Data from: Cuckoos host range is associated positively with distribution range and negatively with evolutionary uniqueness

1. The evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) score is a measure of
phylogenetic isolation that quantifies the evolutionary uniqueness of a
species. 2. Here, we compared the ED score of parasitic and non-parasitic
cuckoo species worldwide, to understand whether parental care or
parasitism represent the largest amount of phylogenetic uniqueness. Next,
we focused only on 46 cuckoo species characterized by brood parasitism
with a known number of host species, we explored the associations among ED
score, number of host species and breeding range size for these species.
We assessed these associations using phylogenetic generalized least
squares (PGLS) models, taking into account the phylogenetic signal. 3.
Parasitic cuckoo species were not more unique in terms of evolutionary
distinctiveness than non-parasitic species. However, we found a
significant negative association between the evolutionary uniqueness and
host range, and a positive correlation between the number of host species
and range size of parasitic cuckoos, probably suggesting a passive
sampling of hosts by parasitic species as the breeding range broadens. 4.
The findings of this study showed that more generalist brood parasites
occupied very different positions in a phylogenetic tree, suggesting that
they have evolved independently within the Cuculiformes order. Finally, we
demonstrated that specialist cuckoo species also represent the most
evolutionarily unique species in the order of Cuculiformes.