PSITTACULIDAE

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 : 48

PSITTACULIDAE

Psittaculidae comprises five subfamilies ( Psittaculinae , Psittacellinae, Platycercinae, Agapornithinae , Loriinae ) that span the Old World. The high diversity of this radiation is reflected in the high number of recognized tribes and genera that are geographically cohesive. Psittaculinae (Polytelini, Psittaculini, Micropsittini ) was sister to all other groups within Psittaculidae (fig. 1). Within the Psittaculinae , Micropsittini (pygmy parrots) was sister to Polytelini/Psittaculini (fig. 1). Next, Psittacellinae (tiger parrots) was sister to a clade containing Platycercinae , Loriinae , and Agapornithinae (fig. 1). The placement of Agapornithinae (lovebirds, hanging parrots, and Guaiabero) differed between phylogenomic trees. In the concatenated tree, Agapornithinae was sister to Loriinae (lorikeets, fig parrots, and Budgerigar) whereas in the species tree it grouped with Platycercinae , albeit with low support (LPP = 63%). Our results do not support monophyly of Mayr’s (2008) Loricoloriinae, its key defining character of hypotarsal morphology likely indicating convergent evolution rather than relationships. For example, we confirm earlier findings ( Joseph et al., 2011) that Micropsittini falls well outside the other taxa ( Mayr, 2008) united in Loricoloriinae.

The supermatrix phylogeny of Provost et al. (2018) showed instability in the monophyly of Platycercinae , but phylogenomic data validated the group. The subfamilies have estimated crown ages dating from the late Oligocene to the early Miocene. The Platycercini and Pezoporini share a common ancestor estimated as the crown age of Platycercinae dated at 27.5 Mya (19.7–32.8; fig. 1).