EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF THE FAMILY CORVIDAE (AVES): A SYNTHESIS OF PHYLOGENETICS, BIOGEOGRAPHY AND NICHE EVOLUTION

Abstract

Despite intensive research attention over the decades, many aspects of the evolutionary history of the bird family Corvidae remain to be assessed. This dissertation focuses on several such details, such as the (a) phylogenetic relationships, (b) biogeography, and (c) evolutionary ecology of this passerine radiation, using diverse analytical approaches. Here, I focus on three subfamilies of the family Corvidae: the Cyanocoracinae (New World jays), distributed across most of the New World, and the Crypsirininae (treepies) and Cissinae (blue/green magpies), both distributed in tropical South and Southeast Asia. In chapter one, I reconstruct the geographic origin of the New World jays. In chapter two, I investigate the molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Crypsirininae and Cissinae, using genome-wide sampling of molecular characters. Finally, in the third and fourth chapters I reconstruct the climatic niches of the NWJs and treepies and blue/green magpies, respectively, and attempt to understand the dynamics of climatic niches through evolutionary time. Additionally, from the phylogenetic, biogeographic, and niche reconstruction outcomes of these focal clades, I attempt to understand how the combined effects of different evolutionary phenomena have paved the way to the current diversity and distributions in the family Corvidae as a whole.