Phylogeny of the Acanthizid Warbler Genus Gerygone Based on Numerical Analyses of Morphological Characters

Abstract

Cladograms, both rooted and unrooted, and phenograms of species in the genus Gerygone were obtained by numerical analyses of a matrix of thirty morphological characters divided into various states. Phylogenetic relationships so deduced were generally in agreement and indicated that the ancestral gerygone was possibly a pale-bellied bird, somewhat resembling both G. mouki and G. fusca, which originated in Australo-Papua. No evidence was obtained in support of a Tumbunan zoogeographical origin. The gerygones of the islands in the South-west Pacific have been derived from two Australian lineages: the fusca and mouki groups. Those of the Malayo-Indonesian chain of islands appear to be offshoots of G. olivacea and perhaps G. fusca stocks. The relationships of G. dorsalis, as assessed by the dendrograms of this study, are not entirely in accord with previous views, for G. dorsalis appears to be the sister group of the G. magnirostris - G. chrysogaster complex.