| Current Zoology(formerly Acta Zoologica Sinica), Apr. 2003, 49(2): 205 - 210 |
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| Title: | Phylogenetic relationships among 13 species of herons inferred from mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequences |
| Authors: | CHANG Qing ZHANG BaoWei JIN Hong ZHU LiFeng ZHOU KaiYa |
| Abstract: | The phylogenetic relationships among 13 species of Ardeidae were assessed by mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequences. The alignment of the 12S rRNA gene totaled 993 nucleotide positions without gaps, including 363 variable sites, 288 polymorphic sites and 187 parsimony informative sites. We reconstructed phylogenetic trees using MEGA and PAUP software, using the neighbor joining and maximum parsimony method respectively. The 13 species of herons were grouped into two clades. The first clade contains 9 species, i[DK1].e. grey heron, purple heron, Chinese pond heron, cattle egret, great egret, little egret, intermediate egret, black crowned night heron and yellow crowned night heron. The second clade contains 4 species, i[DK1].e. Eurasian bittern, Chinese little bittern, cinnamon bittern and black bittern. This supports the classification of the Ardeidae into two subfamilies, Ardeinae and Botaurinae, but does not support their classification into Ardeinae, Nycticracinae, Botaurinae and Tigrisomatinae. The little egret branched off prior to the divergence of great egret and intermediate egret. The great egret and intermediate egret are closer genetically to the grey heron, purple heron and cattle egret than to the little egret. The results support Siblys (1990) classification of the large egret and intermeidate egret in separate genera Casmerodius and Mesophoyx respectively. The black bittern has a closer relationship to the cinnamon bittern and Chinese little bittern, these three species forming a monophyletic group. This supports the placement of the black bittern in the genus Ixobrychus ［Acta Zoologica Sinica 49(2):205-210,2003］. |
| Keywords: | Ardeidae, 12S rRNA gene, Phylogenetic relationship |
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