title: Breeding system evolution influenced the geographic expansion and diversification of the core Corvoidea (Aves: Passeriformes).
abstract: Birds vary greatly in their life-history strategies, including their breeding systems, which range from brood parasitism to a system with multiple nonbreeding helpers at the nest. By far the most common arrangement, however, is where both parents participate in raising the young. The traits associated with parental care have been suggested to affect dispersal propensity and lineage diversification, but to date tests of this potential relationship at broad temporal and spatial scales have been limited. Here, using data from a globally distributed group of corvoid birds in concordance with state-dependent speciation and extinction models, we suggest that pair breeding is associated with elevated speciation rates. Estimates of transition between breeding systems imply that cooperative lineages frequently evolve biparental care, whereas pair breeders rarely become cooperative. We further highlight that these groups have differences in their spatial distributions, with pair breeders overrepresented on islands, and cooperative breeders mainly found on continents. Finally, we find that speciation rates appear to be significantly higher on islands compared to continents. These results imply that the transition from cooperative breeding to pair breeding was likely a significant contributing factor facilitating dispersal across tropical archipelagos, and subsequent world-wide phylogenetic expansion among the core Corvoidea.
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark. petterzmarki@snm.ku.dk.|Department of Environmental and Health Studies, Telemark University College, Hallvard Eikas Plass, N-3800 Bø, Norway. petterzmarki@snm.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Petter Z
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Marki
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138.
authors.forename: Pierre-Henri
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Fabre
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, West Berkshire, SL5 7PY, United Kingdom.|Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Knud A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Jønsson
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, West Berkshire, SL5 7PY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rahbek
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fjeldså
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kennedy
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D012098:Reproduction; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Cooperative breeding; dispersal; islands; passerine birds; speciation