Molecular analysis of the phylogeny of 11 genera of the Corvidae

Phylogenetic analysis of 11 genera of Corvidae has been undertaken using a sequence of 925 bp of the cytochrome b gene of the mtDNA. Both maximum-parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses were performed, and different weighting schemes have been used according to the saturation observed in the data (mostly at the third codon position). The cytochrome b data provide good evidence for the monophyly of the Corvidae, including the Piapiac Ptilostomus afer in spite of its aberrant morphology. In all analyses, the choughs are the first lineage emerging in the family; this result conflicts with the traditional chough-crow group, as well as the hypothesis of the ancestral position of the jays. The monophyly of the American jays is well supported by the molecular data, unlike the Palearctic jays, which are not closely related. The other intergeneric relationships are not strongly supported by bootstrap proportions, and are not congruent in all different weightings and methods, except for groups of species of the same or very closely related genera.