Data from: New insights into New World biogeography: an integrated view from the phylogeny of blackbirds, cardinals, sparrows, tanagers, warblers, and allies

Understanding the biogeographic origins and temporal sequencing of groups
within a region or of lineages within an ecosystem can yield important
insights into evolutionary dynamics and ecological processes. Fifty years
ago, Ernst Mayr generated comprehensive—if limited—inferences about the
origins of the New World avifaunas, including the importance of
pre-Isthmian dispersal between North and South America. Since then,
methodological advances have improved our ability to address many of the
same questions, but the phylogenies upon which such analyses should be
based have been incompletely sampled or fragmentary. Here, we report a
near-species-level phylogeny of the diverse (~832 species) New World clade
Emberizoidea—the group that includes the familiar sparrows, cardinals,
blackbirds, wood-warblers, tanagers, and their close relatives—to our
knowledge the largest essentially complete (≥95%) phylogenetic hypothesis
for any group of organisms. Biogeographic analyses based on this tree
suggest initial dispersal into the New World via Beringia, with rapid
subsequent diversification, including early dispersal of 1 lineage (the
tanagers, Thraupidae) into South America. We found substantial dispersal
between North and South America prior to closure of the Isthmus of Panama,
but with a notable increase afterward, with a directional bias from north
to south. With much greater detail and historical rigor, these analyses
largely confirm Mayr's speculations based on taxonomy, resolving
outstanding ambiguity regarding the continental origins of some groups
such as the Emberizidae and Icteridae. The phylogeny reported here will be
a resource of broad utility for addressing additional evolutionary and
ecological questions with this diverse group.

理解某一区域内类群的生物地理起源与时间演化序列，或是生态系统内支系的时间排布，能够为进化动力学与生态过程研究提供关键洞见。五十年前，恩斯特·迈尔（Ernst Mayr）针对新世界鸟类区系的起源展开了全面但存在局限的推论，其中提及了南北美洲间巴拿马地峡形成前的扩散事件的重要性。自此之后，方法学的进步提升了我们解答诸多同类问题的能力，但此类分析所依赖的系统发育树往往采样不全或较为零散。
本研究报道了物种丰富（约832种）的新世界类群——鹀总科（Emberizoidea）的近物种级别系统发育树，该类群包含我们熟知的雀类、主红雀、黑鹂、森莺、唐纳雀及其近缘类群；据我们所知，这是目前针对任何生物类群完成的规模最大的近乎完整（覆盖度≥95%）的系统发育假说。
基于该系统发育树开展的生物地理分析显示，该类群最初经由白令陆桥（Beringia）扩散至新世界，随后快速辐射演化，其中包括1个支系（唐纳雀科Thraupidae）早期便扩散至南美洲。我们发现，在巴拿马地峡闭合前，南北美洲间存在大量跨区域扩散事件，而在地峡闭合后扩散量显著提升，且呈现出从北向南的方向性偏好。
本研究的分析具备更高的细节精度与历史严谨性，在很大程度上验证了迈尔基于分类学提出的推测，解决了部分类群（如鹀科Emberizidae与拟鹂科Icteridae）的大陆起源争议。本研究报道的系统发育树将成为针对该多样类群开展更多进化与生态学问题研究的通用实用资源。