Speciation of flightless rails on islands: A DNA-based phylogeny of the typical rails of the Pacific

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The living and extinct flightless rails of the Pacific are among the most species-rich examples of parallel evolution in vertebrates. The “typical” rails of this region comprise a diverse assemblage of long-billed species variously placed in the genera Rallus, Lewinia, Nesoclopeus, Gallirallus, Habropteryx, Tricholimnas, Aramidopsis, Amaurornis, Eulabeornis, and Habroptila. I present a phylogenetic hypothesis for this group based on Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of 12S, control region, and cytochrome-b data obtained from museum specimens (frozen tissues, toe pads from study skins, and bones from archaeological sites) of living and extinct species. All previously recognized genera are either monotypic or non-monophyletic, and I advocate lumping nearly all species into a broadly defined Gallirallus sensu lato. Volant species are not paraphyletic with respect to nearly all flightless species. Instead flightless species branch off in rapid succession from lineages leading to extant volant...