Systematics of the avian family Alaudidae using multilocus and genomic data

The family Alaudidae, larks, comprises 93–100 species (depending on taxonomy) that are widely distributed across Africa and Eurasia, with single species extending their ranges to North and northernmost South America and Australia. A decade-old molecular phylogeny, comprising ~80% of the species, revealed multiple cases of parallel evolution and large variation in rates of morphological evolution, which had misled taxonomists into creating many non-monophyletic genera. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeny of the larks, using a dataset covering one mitochondrial and 16 nuclear loci and comprising all except one of the currently recognised species as well as several recently proposed new species (in total 133 taxa; not all loci available for all species). We provide additional support using genome-wide markers to infer a genus-level phylogeny based on near-complete generic sampling (in total 51 samples of 44 taxa across 40 species). Our results confirm the previous findings of rampant morphological convergence and divergence, and reveal new cases of paraphyletic genera. We propose a new subfamily classification, and also that the genus Mirafra is divided into four genera to produce a more balanced generic classification of the Alaudidae. Our study supports recently proposed species splits as well as some recent lumps, while also questioning some of the latter. This comprehensive phylogeny will form an important basis for future studies, such as comparative studies of lark natural history, ecology, evolution and conservation.