Amazona, Lesson, 1830

Smith, Brian Tilston, Thom, Gregory & Joseph, Leo, 2024, Revised Evolutionary And Taxonomic Synthesis For Parrots (Order: Psittaciformes) Guided By Phylogenomic Analysis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (468), pp. 1-87 : 34

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1206/0003-0090.468.1.1

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8D5487F9-9C43-FFDB-FD5F-FF0C4C2D2D97

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Amazona
status

 

Amazona View in CoL

Amazona View in CoL is a diverse yet easily recognizable clade of mid- to large-sized stocky birds with relatively short tails, large heads, and barred plumage. Most species are green with colorful patterning on the head but a few Caribbean species have plainer or more elaborate plumage. The concatenated and species trees are largely concordant and indicate at least three independent colonizations of the Caribbean. The main discrepancy between them arises from the relatively high number of lower-quality samples that were not accurately placed in the species tree. Our topology was generally concordant with that of Rusello and Amato (2004) with the exception of the position of two clades (1, 2) that stemmed from short internodes and were placed in our tree with high support: (1) A. festiva View in CoL , A. pretrei View in CoL , A tucumana View in CoL , and A. vinacea View in CoL ; and (2) A. amazonica View in CoL , A. guildingii View in CoL , A. brasiliensis View in CoL , and A. imperialis View in CoL . The basal divergence in Amazona View in CoL dated to 9.9 Mya (4.7–13.1; fig. 7). It separates a clade of smaller bodied Caribbean ( A. agilis View in CoL , A. vittata View in CoL , A. ventralis View in CoL , A. leucocephala View in CoL , and A. collaria View in CoL and Central American/ Mexican ( A. xantholora View in CoL and A. albifrons View in CoL ) species from all other Amazona View in CoL , a phylogenetic position recovered previously by Russello and Amato (2004). This clade includes dichromatic species ( A. agilis View in CoL , A. xantholora View in CoL , and A. albifrons View in CoL ), a character state that is generally lacking in Amazona View in CoL . Ancient DNA and archaeological evidence show that Amazona View in CoL in the Greater Antilles, specifically A. leucocephala View in CoL and A. ventralis View in CoL , were translocated across the Caribbean and had natural, more widespread ranges in the past ( Oswald et al., 2023). Amazona leucocephala View in CoL was also found to have intraisland divergences throughout the Pleistocene. The next divergence results in two sister clades whose short node now has more support (UFBS = 91% vs. BS = 53%) than that in Russello and Amato (2004). The first clade had a crown age of 9.2 Mya (4.4–12.1) and includes a heterogeneous group of species spanning from Mexico (e.g., A. viridigenalis View in CoL , A. finschi View in CoL ) to Brazil ( A. diadema , A. amazonica View in CoL ; fig. 7). It also represents a colonization of the Caribbean ( A. imperialis View in CoL and A. guildingii View in CoL ). Amazon guildingii is polymorphic, having yellow-brown and green plumage morphs ( Forshaw and Knight, 2010). The second of the major sister clades is also geographically widespread and consists of two independent colonizations of Central America. The first was seen in the divergence within what was formerly treated as a single species A. farinosa . It supports species rank for its Central American populations now recognized as A. guatemalae with two subspecies A. g. guatemalae and A. g. virenticeps. This accords with Wenner et al.’s (2012) phylogeographic study on the A. farinosa complex in which they detected a deep divergence between Central and South American lineages (1.75–2.70 Myr split in mtDNA). Our estimate was comparable but older. Together, the two data sets support divergence that reflects independent evolution of A. farinosa and A. guatemalae irrespective of a potential contact zone, vocal differences, or morphological distinctiveness. Chesser et al. (2023) did not recognize A. guatemalae as a species, arguing that a more thorough population-level study is necessary to better understand species limits. The second divergence across the Isthmus of Panama involves the yellow-headed Amazons and the split of A. ochrocephala from A. oratrix and A. auropalliata of Central America and Mexico, and A. tresmariae of the Tres Marias Islands of the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The recognition of these lineages as species (as opposed to subspecies) was in part due to phylogeographic studies that found deep genetic divisions within the yellow-headed Amazon complex ( Eberhard and Bermingham, 2004; Ribas et al., 2007b). Amazona tresmariae View in CoL , as with A. guatemalae , was not recognized as a species by the North American Checklist Committee for similar reasons of inconclusive data ( Chesser et al., 2023). This clade was sister to the third colonization of the Caribbean where A. barbadensis View in CoL of Venezuela and neighboring islands was sister to A. versicolor View in CoL of St. Lucia and A. arausiaca View in CoL of Dominica. The final clade was a group of three species, A. vinacea View in CoL , A. tucumana View in CoL , and A. pretrei View in CoL , that have a southern distribution in Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Psittaciformes

Family

Psittacidae

Loc

Amazona

Smith, Brian Tilston, Thom, Gregory & Joseph, Leo 2024
2024
Loc

Amazona tresmariae

Nelson 1900
1900
Loc

A. imperialis

Richmond 1899
1899
Loc

A. imperialis

Richmond 1899
1899
Loc

A. oratrix

Ridgway 1887
1887
Loc

Amazona

Lesson 1830
1830
Loc

Amazona

Lesson 1830
1830
Loc

Amazona

Lesson 1830
1830
Loc

Amazona

Lesson 1830
1830
Loc

Amazona

Lesson 1830
1830
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