Ecological and historical views of the diversification of Geositta miners (Aves: Furnariidae: Sclerurinae)

Abstract

Diverse historical and ecological factors determine and drive diversification of vertebrate lineages. Historical factors (e.g., orogenic movements) are expected to act on coarser spatial and temporal scales than contemporary ecological factors (e.g., climate and biotic interactions). However, distinctions between such scales remain arbitrary, and yet are important to understanding which factors acted in the emergence of new species. We inferred ancestral states for climatic niches on ecological scales, and ancestral area reconstructions for the genus Geositta on deeper time scales. Ecological niches did not overlap more between sister species than among more distant relatives, and rather pointed to a plastic scenario for climatic diversification of Geositta rather than niche conservatism. Events temporally associated with the formation of the Andes (Miocene) seem to explain most of the diversification. In sum, climatic factors may not have had a great influence in the diversification of Geositta, at least in the context of Pleistocene climate fluctuations. © 2016, Dt. Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V.