Rethinking spatial history: envisioning a mechanistic historical biogeography.

Historical biogeography is the study of geographic distributions of taxa through space and time. Over the last 50 years, several methods have been proposed to reconstruct these histories. However, despite their particularities, conceptually they have been most often derived from the reconstruction of area relationships.

Habitat specialization predicts demographic response and vulnerability of floodplain birds in Amazonia.

The annual flooding cycle of Amazonian rivers sustains the largest floodplains on Earth, which harbour a unique bird community. Recent studies suggest that habitat specialization drove different patterns of population structure and gene flow in floodplain birds. However, the lack of a direct estimate of habitat affinity prevents a proper test of its effects on population histories.

Diversification history in the Dendrocincla fuliginosa complex (Aves: Dendrocolaptidae): Insights from broad geographic sampling.

Dendrocincla woodcreepers are ant-following birds widespread throughout tropical America. Species in the genus are widely distributed and show little phenotypic variation. Notwithstanding, several subspecies have been described, but the validity of some of these taxa and the boundaries among them have been discussed for decades.

Systematics and biogeography of the Automolus infuscatus complex (Aves; Furnariidae): Cryptic diversity reveals western Amazonia as the origin of a transcontinental radiation.

A revision of the avian Neotropical genus Automolus and the Furnariidae family points to the paraphyly of A. infuscatus and reveals a species complex comprising A. infuscatus, A.