Phylogenetic relationships amongst swifts and swiftlets: a multi locus approach.

We recently reconstructed the troublesome swiftlet phylogeny using cytochrome-b mitochondrial DNA sequences. The relationship of the giant swiftlet (Hydrochous gigas) with swiftlets of the genus Aerodramus was, however, unresolved. In an attempt to clarify this issue, we now incorporated mitochondrial 12S rRNA and nuclear beta-fibrinogen intron 7 nuclear DNA sequences with the cyt-b sequences of six swiftlet, two swift, and one hummingbird outgroup species.

A new phylogeny of swiftlets (Aves: Apodidae) based on cytochrome-b DNA.

Due to a lack of distinctive morphological characters, swift taxonomy and phylogeny has always been an area of disagreement. To shed more light on this subject, we reconstructed swift(let) phylogeny based on 1143 bp of mitochondrial cytochrome-b DNA sequence. Although this is not the first attempt to reconstruct swift phylogeny using molecular data, our results show higher support for many of the branches due to our much longer sequences.