Comprehensive taxon sampling and vetted fossils help clarify the time tree of shorebirds (Aves, Charadriiformes)

Shorebirds (Charadriiformes) are a globally distributed clade of modern birds and, due to their ecological and morphological disparity, a frequent subject of comparative studies. While molecular phylogenies have been key to establishing the suprafamilial backbone of the charadriiform tree, a number of relationships at both deep and shallow taxonomic levels remain poorly resolved. The timescale of shorebird evolution also remains uncertain as a result of extensive disagreements among the published divergence dating studies, stemming largely from different choices of fossil calibrations. Here, we present the most comprehensive non-supertree phylogeny of shorebirds to date, based on a total-evidence dataset comprising 353 ingroup taxa (90% of all extant or recently extinct species), 27 loci (15 mitochondrial and 12 nuclear), and 69 morphological characters. We further clarify the timeline of charadriiform evolution by time-scaling this phylogeny using a set of 14 up-to-date and thorough...滨鸟（Charadriiformes，鸻形目）是全球分布的现生鸟类支系，因其生态与形态分异度极高，长期以来均为比较研究的核心对象之一。尽管分子系统发育研究对构建鸻形目系统树的科上等级主干框架起到了关键作用，但仍有诸多深层与浅层分类学层面的系统发育关系尚未得到明确解析。受已发表的分化时间研究间存在广泛分歧影响，滨鸟演化的时间框架至今仍未明确，而这些分歧主要源于不同研究选取的化石校准方案存在显著差异。本研究基于总证据数据集构建了迄今为止最为全面的滨鸟非超树系统发育树，该数据集涵盖353个内群类群（占所有现生或近绝灭物种的90%）、27个基因座（15个线粒体基因座与12个核基因座）以及69个形态学性状。本研究进一步通过采用14套最新且严谨的时间校准方案对该系统发育树进行时间标定，以明确鸻形目演化的时间线……