Here's a phylogeny of parakeets including ours with an inference of their evolutionary history.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0561.x/pdf
Ian
Parakeets
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Ian Southey
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Ian Southey
- Posts: 1104
- Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:45 pm
Re: Parakeets
Here's another one http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... te_species
Identifies a genetic trace of Orange-fronted Parakeet in both of the other species on the Auckland Islands and discusses the possibility that they might once have been there.
Ian
Identifies a genetic trace of Orange-fronted Parakeet in both of the other species on the Auckland Islands and discusses the possibility that they might once have been there.
Ian
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Jake
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Re: Parakeets
Is anyone able to explain how the morphology of orange-fronted, Forbes and yellow-fronted is so similar but they are so genetically removed: I am struggling to get my head around it to be honest. If it weren't for the genetic similarities we would still be debating if orange-fronted parakeets were even a species let alone more closely related to red-fronted kakariki.
Are the red-fronted kakariki (morphologically speaking) the newer type, descendant of something that we can presume looked like our Forbes/yellow/orange-fronted parakeets?
I've often thought that the horned parakeets and the Uvea parakeets would probably be very closely related to New Zealand parakeets - but that's just looking at range, morphology, vocalisations and behaviour
Are the red-fronted kakariki (morphologically speaking) the newer type, descendant of something that we can presume looked like our Forbes/yellow/orange-fronted parakeets?
I've often thought that the horned parakeets and the Uvea parakeets would probably be very closely related to New Zealand parakeets - but that's just looking at range, morphology, vocalisations and behaviour
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Ian Southey
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Re: Parakeets
Jake
Your last suggestion is correct Cyanoramphus and Eunymphicus are sister genera - the other one close to them is Prosopeia from Fiji and Tonga.
The earliest surviving branches on the Cyanoramphus tree have a Red-crowned Parakeet colour pattern so I presume it's the ancestral one. The only one of these I've seen is the New Caledonian one which which is big and doesn't chatter like any of the New Zealand Parakeets so I think it is likely they are indeed each other's closest relatives in spite of the different crown colours as the genetics suggest.
I can't explain why the crown patterns of those species are so similar when all their relatives look like Red-crowns.
Does that help?
Ian
Your last suggestion is correct Cyanoramphus and Eunymphicus are sister genera - the other one close to them is Prosopeia from Fiji and Tonga.
The earliest surviving branches on the Cyanoramphus tree have a Red-crowned Parakeet colour pattern so I presume it's the ancestral one. The only one of these I've seen is the New Caledonian one which which is big and doesn't chatter like any of the New Zealand Parakeets so I think it is likely they are indeed each other's closest relatives in spite of the different crown colours as the genetics suggest.
I can't explain why the crown patterns of those species are so similar when all their relatives look like Red-crowns.
Does that help?
Ian
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Jake
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Re: Parakeets
Yes it does and I'm pleased that you mentioned the shinning parrots! Especially looking at the masked shinning parrot you can see a decent resemblance to our parakeets. I think Buller talked about kakariki as Platycercus, and indeed there have been a few (captive) hybrids between the two genera but still.
I guess the mutations toward yellow/orange crowns is deletion. And maybe it could have been an almost impossible to conceive case of convergent evolution where the reduced red and a spot of yellow camouflaged them (from falcons) slightly better into higher forest canopy. Would it be probable that the red-crowned types were got bulkier as a result of being on mammal-free islands and utilising food sources closer to the ground - as the Antipodes parakeet has done? Or could it have been another case of convergent evolution where the yellow/orange fronted's retained/developed their flying habits and got slightly smaller to suit their environment? - Just me thinking aloud
This is one of the most interesting phylogenetic trees and it is wonderful that we still have most of the species extant to ponder how they evolved: too many questions!
I guess the mutations toward yellow/orange crowns is deletion. And maybe it could have been an almost impossible to conceive case of convergent evolution where the reduced red and a spot of yellow camouflaged them (from falcons) slightly better into higher forest canopy. Would it be probable that the red-crowned types were got bulkier as a result of being on mammal-free islands and utilising food sources closer to the ground - as the Antipodes parakeet has done? Or could it have been another case of convergent evolution where the yellow/orange fronted's retained/developed their flying habits and got slightly smaller to suit their environment? - Just me thinking aloud
This is one of the most interesting phylogenetic trees and it is wonderful that we still have most of the species extant to ponder how they evolved: too many questions!