Disentangling the evolutionary history and biogeography of hill partridges (Phasianidae, Arborophila) from low coverage shotgun sequences

Abstract

The advent of the phylogenomic era has significantly improved our understanding of the evolutionary history and biogeography of Southeast Asia’s diverse avian fauna. However, the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of many Southeast Asian birds remain poorly resolved, especially for those with large geographic ranges, which might have experienced both ancient and recent geological and environmental changes. In this study, we examined the evolutionary history and biogeography of the hill partridges (Galliformes: Phasianidae: Arborophila spp.), currently the second most speciose galliform genus, and thought to have colonized Southeast Asia from Africa. We present a well‐resolved phylogeny of 14 Arborophila species inferred from ultra-conserved elements, exons, and mitochondrial genomes from both fresh and museum samples, which representing almost complete coverage of the genus. Our fossil-calibrated divergence time estimates and biogeographic modeling showed the ancestor of Arborophila arrived in Indochina during the early Miocene, but the initial divergence within Arborophila did not occur until ~10 Ma when global cooling intensified. Subsequent dispersal and diversification within Arborophila were driven by several tectonic and climatic events. In particular, we found evidence of rapid radiation in Indochinese Arborophila during the Pliocene global cooling and extensive dispersal and speciation of Sundaic Arborophila during the Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations. Taken together, these results suggest that the evolutionary history and biogeography of Arborophila were influenced by complex interactions among historical, geological and climatic events in Southeast Asia.