The family Thamnophilidae is a species-rich Neotropical radiation of passerine birds. Current classification of its 235 species is mostly based on morphological similarities, but recent studies integrating comprehensive phenotypic and phylogenetic data have redefined taxonomic limits of several taxa. Here, we assess generic relationships of Herpsilochmus, Sakesphorus, Thamnophilus, Biatas, and Dysithamnus using DNA sequences from the mitochondrion, nuclear exons, and ultraconserved elements, with further attention to interspecific relationships within Herpsilochmus. We show that Herpsilochmus and Sakesphorus are not monophyletic. We resolve Herpsilochmus sellowi as a deep-branch sister to the monotypic genus Biatas and Sakesphorus cristatus as sister to a clade comprising Herpsilochmus sensu stricto and Dysithamnus. These results are consistent across loci, obtained via concatenation and coalescent-based analyses, and supported by likelihood-ratio tests of the distribution of our sampled coalescent histories. The phenotypic distinctiveness of both H. sellowi and Biatas argues against merging them into a single genus. Because no generic name is available for H. sellowi, we describe a monotypic genus. The polyphyly of Sakesphorus warrants recognition of the available generic name Sakesphoroides for the distinctive and monotypic S. cristatus. Furthermore, we recover 6 well-supported species groups within Herpsilochmus sensu stricto. Within the context of the family as a whole, the ubiquity of long terminal branches representing monotypic genera points to extinction events among ancestors of these lineages. We suggest that retention of ancestral characters or random genetic drift coupled with extensive extinction could explain the high degree of morphological and ecological similarity across these taxa, but we highlight the potential role of the environment in driving adaptive phenotypic convergence. Finally, our results send a cautionary message against the blind use of phylogenies containing imputed data based on taxonomy due to the increasingly frequent mismatches between traditional taxonomic classification and molecular phylogenies.

中文翻译：

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系统基因组分析揭示了蚁鸟 Herpsilochmus 和 Sakesphorus (Thamnophilidae) 属的非单系性，并描述了 Herpsilochmus sellowi 的一个新属

Thamnophilidae 家族是雀形目鸟类的物种丰富的新热带辐射。目前对其 235 个物种的分类主要基于形态相似性，但最近整合综合表型和系统发育数据的研究重新定义了几个分类群的分类限制。在这里，我们使用来自线粒体、核外显子和超保守元件的 DNA 序列评估 Herpsilochmus、Sakesphorus、Thamnophilus、Biatas 和 Dysithamnus 的一般关系，并进一步关注 Herpsilochmus 内的种间关系。我们表明 Herpsilochmus 和 Sakesphorus 不是单系的。我们将 Herpsilochmus sellowi 解析为单型属 Biatas 和 Sakesphorus cristatus 的深分支姐妹，作为包括 Herpsilochmus sensu stricto 和 Dysithamnus 的进化枝的姐妹。这些结果在整个基因座上是一致的，通过连接和基于聚结的分析获得，并得到我们采样的聚结历史分布的似然比检验的支持。H. sellowi 和 Biatas 的表型独特性反对将它们合并为一个属。因为没有可用于 H. sellowi 的通用名称，我们描述了一个单型属。Sakesphorus 的多系保证了对独特和单型 S. cristatus 的可用属名 Sakesphoroides 的认可。此外，我们在 Herpsilochmus sensu stricto 中恢复了 6 个支持良好的物种群。在整个家族的背景下，代表单型属的长末端分支的普遍存在表明这些谱系的祖先之间发生了灭绝事件。我们建议保留祖先特征或随机遗传漂变加上广泛灭绝可以解释这些分类群的高度形态和生态相似性，但我们强调环境在驱动适应性表型收敛中的潜在作用。最后，由于传统分类学分类和分子系统发育之间越来越频繁的不匹配，我们的结果发出了一个警告信息，反对盲目使用包含基于分类学的估算数据的系统发育。