The origin and evolution of the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae)

Author:

Raikow, Robert J.

Title:

The origin and evolution of the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae)

Periodical:

Living Bird

Year:

1976

Volume:

15

Pages:

95-117

Subject:

Drepanidinae Hawaiian honeycreepers Adaptive radiation (Evolution)

Summary:

The Hawaiian islands form one of the most isolated land areas of significant size in the world. Located at least 2000 miles from any major land mass in the central Pacific Ocean, these islands have a high degree of endemism in many groups of vertebrates and invertebrates -- most members of whom evolved in the islands from a small number of founder species that accidentally colonized this archipelago. This is especially true among Hawaiian vertebrates, such as birds, for which the most spectacular evolutionary developments have occurred. In this paper, the author studies that origin and evolution of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers (Drepanididae) -- a family of birds that includes a variety of mainly aboreal, seed-, insect-, and nectar-feeding forms with an incredible variety of specialized bills. Here the author reviews evidence and introduces new information and interpretations about the structure and relationships of the Drepanididae while he considers the following questions: Did the Drepanididae arise from one or two ancestral species? Which continental group gave rise to the founder species? What was the nature of the founder? Is it possible to reconstruct the probable form and characteristics of the original species? What is the phylogeny of the family? What pattern of splitting and divergences led to the present diversity of genera?

Label:

Birds - General

Date:

1976

Collection:

Periodicals