Michael E. Dillon
R. Terry Chesser
Pablo Sabat
Carlos Martinez del Rio
Jonathan A. Rader
2015
<p><i>Cinclodes</i><span> is an ecologically diverse genus of South American passerine birds and represents a case of continental adaptive radiation along multiple axes. We investigated morphological diversification in </span><i>Cinclodes</i><span> using a comprehensive set of morphometric measurements of study skins. Principal component analysis identified 2 primary axes of morphological variation: one describing body size and a second capturing differences in wing-tip shape and toe length. Phylogenetic analyses of the first principal component suggest an early divergence of</span><i>Cinclodes</i><span> into 2 main clades characterized by large and small body sizes. We suggest that 2 morphological outliers within these main clades (</span><i><i>C. antarcticus</i></i><span> and </span><i>C. palliatus</i><span>) may be cases of island gigantism and that a third (</span><i>C. patagonicus</i><span>) may reflect ecological character displacement. Despite its ecological and physiological diversity, the genus </span><i>Cinclodes</i><span> does not appear to show morphological diversity beyond what is typical of other avian genera.</span></p>
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10.1642/AUK-14-49.1
en
American Ornithological Society
Morphological divergence in a continental adaptive radiation: South American ovenbirds of the genus <i>Cinclodes</i>
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