Natal Dispersal And Population Structure In A Migratory Songbird, The Indigo Bunting

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137550/1/evo05265.pd

Species limits in the indigobirds (Ploceidae, Vidua) of West Africa: mouth mimicry, song mimicry, and description of new species.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56406/1/MP162.pd

A distributional checklist of the birds of Michigan

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56408/1/MP164.pd

Populations and type specimens of a nomadic bird: comments on the North American crossbills Loxia pusilla Gloger 1834 and Crucirostra minor Brehm 1845

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57150/1/OP714.pd

A Genetic And Behavioral Analysis Of Mate Choice And Song Neighborhoods In Indigo Buntings

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137585/1/evo02512.pd

A SINGLE ANCIENT ORIGIN OF BROOD PARASITISM IN AFRICAN FINCHES: IMPLICATIONS FOR HOST-PARASITE COEVOLUTION

. Robust phylogenies for brood-parasitic birds, their hosts, and nearest nesting relatives provide the framework to address historical questions about host-parasite coevolution and the origins of parasitic behavior. We tested phylogenetic hypotheses for the two genera of African brood-parasitic finches, Anomalospiza and Vidua , using mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 43 passeriform species. Our analyses strongly support a sister relationship between Vidua and Anomalospiza , leading to the conclusion that obligate brood parasitism evolved only once in African finches rather than twice, as has been the conventional view. In addition, the parasitic finches (Viduidae) are not recently derived from either weavers (Ploceidae) or grassfinches (Estrildidae), but represent a third distinct lineage. Among these three groups, the parasitic finches and estrildids, which includes the hosts of all 19 Vidua species, are sister taxa in all analyses of our full dataset. Many characters shared by Vidua and estrildids, including elaborate mouth markings in nestlings, unusual begging behavior, and immaculate white eggs, can therefore be attributed to common ancestry rather than convergent evolution. The host-specificity of mouth mimicry in Vidua species, however, is clearly the product of subsequent host-parasite coevolution. The lineage leading to Anomalospiza switched to parasitizing more distantly related Old World warblers (Sylviidae) and subsequently lost these characteristics. Substantial sequence divergence between Vidua and Anomalospiza indicates that the origin of parasitic behavior in this clade is ancient (∼20 million years ago), a striking contrast to the recent radiation of extant Vidua . We suggest that the parasitic finch lineage has experienced repeated cycles of host colonization, speciation, and extinction through their long history as brood parasites and that extant Vidua species represent only the latest iterations of this process. This dynamic process may account for a significantly faster rate of DNA sequence evolution in parasitic finches as compared to estrildids and other passerines. Our study reduces by one the tally of avian lineages in which obligate brood parasitism has evolved and suggests an origin of parasitism that involved relatively closely related species likely to accept and provide appropriate care to parasitic young. Given the ancient origin of parasitism in African finches, ancestral estrildids must have been parasitized well before the diversification of extant Vidua , suggesting a long history of coevolution between these lineages preceding more recent interactions between specific hosts and parasites.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72018/1/j.0014-3820.2001.tb00768.x.pd

Evolutionary Associations Of Brood Parasitic Finches (Vidua) And Their Host Species: Analyses Of Mitochondrial Dna Restriction Sites

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137614/1/evo01655.pd

Systematics and evolutionary relationships among the herons (Ardeidae).

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56394/1/MP150.pd

Genetic continuity of brood-parasitic indigobird species

Speciation in brood-parasitic indigobirds (genus Vidua ) is a consequence of behavioural imprinting in both males and females. Mimicry of host song by males and host fidelity in female egg laying result in reproductive isolation of indigobirds associated with a given host species. Colonization of new hosts and subsequent speciation require that females occasionally lay eggs in the nests of novel hosts but the same behaviour may lead to hybridization when females parasitize hosts already associated with other indigobird species. Thus, retained ancestral polymorphism and ongoing hybridization are two alternative explanations for the limited genetic differentiation among indigobird species. We tested for genetic continuity of indigobird species using mitochondrial sequences and nuclear microsatellite data. Within West Africa and southern Africa, allopatric populations of the same species are generally more similar to each other than to sympatric populations of different species. Likewise, a larger proportion of genetic variation is explained by differences between species than by differences between locations in alternative hierarchical amovas, suggesting that the rate of hybridization is not high enough to homogenize sympatric populations of different species or prevent genetic differentiation between species. Broad sharing of genetic polymorphisms among species, however, suggests that some indigobird species trace to multiple host colonization events in space and time, each contributing to the formation of a single interbreeding population bound together by songs acquired from the host species.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75693/1/j.1365-294X.2005.02492.x.pd

From respect to reburial: negotiating pagan interest in prehistoric human remains in Britain, through the Avebury consultation

The recent Avebury Consultation on reburial has drawn considerable public and professional attention to the issue of pagan calls for respect towards the care of human remains. Our work has pointed to the importance of archaeologists and others engaging seriously and respectfully with pagans as significant stakeholders in our heritage. The Avebury Reburial Consultation suggests this dialogue is increasing in strength, but we identify problems in the process. We focus here on approaches to the prehistoric dead and worldviews enabling communication from which calls or ‘claims’ for the reburial of prehistoric pagan human remains, versus their retention for scientific study, are articulated; frameworks for assessing and adjudicating such ‘claims’; and implications for the interest groups concerned. We argue that room must be made for philosophical debate and the emotional and spiritual views of pagans, in order to improve dialogue, develop common ground, and enable participatory decision-making and situational pragmatism