Furnarii

Relationships after Moyle et al. (2009) and Chesser (2004).

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

There is a basal polytomy in Furnarii among four clades: Melanopareia (crescent-chests), a genus traditionally assigned to Rhinocryptidae (Irestedt et al. 2002; Chesser 2004), Thamnophilidae (typical antbirds), Conopophagidae (gnateaters), and remaining Furnarii. Gnat-eaters have been placed as sister to typical antbirds in some analyses (Irestedt et al. 2001, 2002; Chesser 2004) and as sister to most other Furnarii in others (Barker et al. 2002, 2004, Moyle et al. 2009). Thamnophilidae is a clade detached from Formicariidae (then just "antbirds") by Sibley and Ahlquist (1990). But even with thamnophilids removed, Formicariidae (at that point, ground antbirds) has proven to be paraphyletic. It is divided into two parts; one of them, Grallariidae (ant-pittas), is apparently the sister group of the remaining Furnarii (though in some analyses it is the sister group of Rhinocryptidae, the tapaculos). The other part, ant-thrushes, which retains the name Formicariidae, is sister to Furnariidae (ovenbirds) and Dendrocolaptidae (woodcreepers). Traditional Furnariidae is paraphyletic to Dendrocolaptidae (Irestedt et al. 2002; Chesser 2004), and so is also divided into two groups, Scleruridae and Furnariidae. And a third group of Furnariidae, the odd genus Xenops, was found to be even closer to the woodcreepers by Irestedt et al. (2006), but Moyle et al (2009) found it to be within the revised Furnariidae. Nor are even the traditional antpittas monophyletic; one genus commonly assigned to the group,  Pittasoma, turns out to be a gnateater (Rice 2005a, b).

Other Names for Furnarii

• Furnariides

References

Barker, F. K., G. F. Barrowclough, and J. G. Groth. 2002. A phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds; Taxonomic and biogeographic implications of an analysis of nuclear DNA sequence data. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 269:295-308.

Barker, F. K., A. Cibois, P. Schikler, J. Feinstein, and J. Cracraft. 2004. Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:11040-11045.

Chesser, R. T. 2004. Molecular systematics of New World suboscine birds. Mol. Phylogen. Evol. 32:11-24.

Feduccia, A. 1973. Evolutionary trends in the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodhewers. Ornithol. Monogr. 13:1–69.

Irestedt, M., J. Fjeldså, and P. G. P. Ericson. 2006. Evolution of the ovenbird-woodcreeper assemblage (Aves: Furnariidae) — major shifts in nest architecture and adaptive radiation. Journal of Avian Biology 37:261–272.

Irestedt, M., J. Fjeldså, U. S. Johansson, and P. G. P. Ericson. 2002. Systematic relationships and biogeography of the tracheophone suboscines (Aves: Passeriformes). Mol. Phylogen. Evol. 23:499-512.

Irestedt, M., U. S. Johansson, T. J. Parsons, and P. G. P. Ericson. 2001. Phylogeny of major lineages of suboscines (Passeriformes) analysed by nuclear DNA sequence data. J. Avian Biol. 32:15-25.

Krabbe, N. K. and Schulenberg, T. S. 2003. Family Formicariidae (Ground-antbirds). Pages 682–731 in Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Broadbills to Tapaculos. BirdLife International and Lynx Editions, Cambridge, UK and Barcelona.

Moyle, R. G., R. T. Chesser, R. T. Brumfield, J. G. Tello, D. J. Marchese, and J. Cracraft. 2009. Phylogeny and phylogenetic classification of the antbirds, ovenbirds, woodcreepers, and allies (Aves: Passeriformes: infraorder Furnariides. Cladistics 25:386-405.

Rice, N. H. 2005a. Phylogenetic relationships of antpitta genera (Passeriformes: Formicariidae). Auk 122(2):673-683.

Rice, N. H. 2005b. Further Evidence for Paraphyly of the Formicariidae (Passeriformes). Condor 107(4):910-915.

Ridgely, R. S. and G. Tudor. 1994. The Birds of South America. Volume 2. The Suboscine Passerines. University of Texas, Austin.

Sibley, C. G., and J. A. Ahlquist. 1990. Phylogeny and classification of birds, Yale U. Press, New Haven.

Skutch, A. F. 1996. Antbirds and Ovenbirds. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.

Tubaro, P. L., D. A. Lijtmaer, M. G. Palacios, and C. Kopuchian. 2002. Adaptive modification of tail structure in relation to body mass and buckling in woodcreepers. Condor 104(2):281-296.