Abstract
Abstract The Old World sparrows include some of the best-studied passerine species, such as the cosmopolitan human commensal, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) as well as poorly studied narrow-range endemics like the Iago sparrow (P. iagoensis) from the Cape Verde Archipelago or specialists from extreme environments like the desert sparrow (P. simplex). It is therefore notable that to date the most complete phylogenetic hypothesis for the Old World sparrows comprised only ten of 43 currently accepted species. With this study we provide an updated phylogeny of Passeridae covering about two third of the family’s species richness. Though still being far from taxon-complete, this new phylogenetic hypothesis provides firm evidence to clarify some open taxonomic questions. All genus-level taxa were reciprocally monophyletic with strong support. Contrary to previous classifications, bush sparrows and rock sparrows were not sister taxa, and therefore their classification in separate genera Gymnoris and Petronia is justified. Plumage color traits like the yellow throat patch of the latter two genera or head color pattern in Passer species do not provide reliable phylogenetic information, except for the large-sized African grey-headed sparrows that resulted as a monophyletic group (P. diffusus, P. griseus, P. gongoensis). Unexpectedly, two small-sized species, P. eminibey and P. luteus that to date are regarded as close relatives were firmly nested in two separate clades of Passer sparrows. Therefore, their separate generic treatment under Sorella eminibey and Auripasser luteus (together with A. euchlorus) does not seem justified.
Highlights
The Old World sparrows, Passeridae, are a speciose passerine family distributed all over the Afrotropics, the Palearctic and parts of the Oriental Region
As a contribution to the current discussion on phylo genetic relationships within Passeridae, we provide a new phylogenetic hypothesis for 18 species of Old World sparrows (Passer) and another 11 species of African bush-sparrows (Gymnoris), rock sparrows (Petronia, [Fig. 2B]) and snowfinches (Onychostruthus, Pyrgilauda, Montifringilla) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and other Palearctic mountain systems
The basal split in Old World sparrows was dated to approximately 17.5 mya and separated the cinnamon ibon (Hypocryptadius cinnamomeus) from all other Passeridae
Summary
The Old World sparrows, Passeridae, are a speciose passerine family distributed all over the Afrotropics, the Palearctic and parts of the Oriental Region. Throughout the entire Old World, only the Australian Region and Madagascar are not inhabited by any species of the family – except the human-introduced house sparrow. Several species are highly adapted to extreme environments such as the snowfinches (Montifringilla, Pyrgilauda and Onychostruthus) from the high alpine ecosystems of Eurasian mountain systems (Lei et al 2014; Päckert et al 2020). Recent comparison of high-quality genomes provided evidence of divergent adaptation to local selective pressures in each of the three snowfinch genera (Qu et al 2021). The extremely hot and dry Sahara harbors suitable habitat for specialists like the Desert sparrow, Passer simplex. Areas of highest species richness are located in the African Rift Valley and at the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) (Fig. 1)
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