Response to Comment on "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds"

Joel Cracraft; Peter Houde; Simon Y W Ho; David P Mindell; Jon Fjeldså; Bent Lindow; Scott V Edwards; Carsten Rahbek; Siavash Mirarab; Tandy Warnow; M Thomas P Gilbert; Guojie Zhang; Edward L Braun; Erich D Jarvis

doi:10.1126/science.aab1578

Response to Comment on "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds"

Science. 2015 Sep 25;349(6255):1460. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1578.

Authors

Joel Cracraft¹, Peter Houde², Simon Y W Ho³, David P Mindell⁴, Jon Fjeldså⁵, Bent Lindow⁶, Scott V Edwards⁷, Carsten Rahbek⁸, Siavash Mirarab⁹, Tandy Warnow¹⁰, M Thomas P Gilbert¹¹, Guojie Zhang¹², Edward L Braun¹³, Erich D Jarvis¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA. jlc@amnh.org ebraun68@ufl.edu jarvis@neuro.duke.edu.
² Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA.
³ School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
⁵ Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
⁶ Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁸ Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK.
⁹ Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Departments of Bioengineering and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
¹¹ Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia.
¹² China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, Universitetsparken 15, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹³ Department of Biology and Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. jlc@amnh.org ebraun68@ufl.edu jarvis@neuro.duke.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA. jlc@amnh.org ebraun68@ufl.edu jarvis@neuro.duke.edu.

PMID: 26404820
DOI: 10.1126/science.aab1578

Abstract

Mitchell et al. argue that divergence-time estimates for our avian phylogeny were too young because of an "inappropriate" maximum age constraint for the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and that, as a result, most modern bird orders diverged before the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event 66 million years ago instead of after. However, their interpretations of the fossil record and timetrees are incorrect.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Birds / genetics*
Genome*
Phylogeny*

Grants and funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute/United States