Abstract
AbstractThe typical owl family (Strigidae) comprises 194 species in 28 genera, 14 of which are monotypic. Relationships within and among genera in the typical owls have been challenging to discern because mitochondrial data have produced equivocal results and because many monotypic genera have been omitted from previous molecular analyses. Here, we collected and analyzed DNA sequences of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) from 43 species of typical owls to produce concatenated and multispecies coalescent-based phylogenetic hypotheses for all but one genus in the typical owl family. Our results reveal extensive paraphyly of taxonomic groups across phylogenies inferred using different analytical approaches and suggest the genera Athene, Otus, Asio, Megascops, Bubo, and Strix are paraphyletic, whereas Ninox and Glaucidium are polyphyletic. Secondary analyses of protein-coding mitochondrial genes harvested from off-target sequencing reads and mitochondrial genomes downloaded from GenBank generally support the extent of paraphyly we observe, although some disagreements exist at higher taxonomic levels between our nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenetic hypotheses. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of taxon sampling for understanding and describing evolutionary relationships in this group, as well as the need for additional sampling, study, and taxonomic revision of typical owl species. Additionally, our findings highlight how both divergence and convergence in morphological characters have obscured our understanding of the evolutionary history of typical owls, particularly those with insular distributions.
Highlights
Owls (Strigiformes) are among the most iconic birds, recognizable because of their large eyes, distinctive facial discs, and “fluffy” plumage
Recovery of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and Mitochondrial Genomes We obtained an average of 4.6 million read pairs from tissue samples and 1.1 million read pairs from toepad samples
We identified an average of 4,675 UCE loci from tissue samples and 2,896 UCE loci from toepad samples (Table 1)
Summary
Owls (Strigiformes) are among the most iconic birds, recognizable because of their large eyes, distinctive facial discs, and “fluffy” plumage. Studies of owls separated them into 2 taxonomic groups: the barn owls (Tytonidae, Wetmore 1960; 19 species, Dickinson and Remsen 2013) and the typical owls (Strigidae, Wetmore 1960; 194 species, Dickinson and Remsen 2013). This division was proposed during the mid1800s (Nitzsch 1840) and supported by numerous morphological characters (Ridgway 1914, Bock and McEvey 1969). Subsequent classifications of taxa within Strigidae relied on characters related to the external ear and facial discs: Bonaparte (1850) proposed 3 subfamilies within the group (Figure 1A) while Kaup (1862) suggested 2 (Figure 1B)
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