Vocalization And Phylogenesis Study Of 7 Kinds Of Cranes In China

Birds communicate by songs,and avian vocalization is a main aspect of ornithology.Just as morphology,it is an important phylogenetic signal and a significant factor of production isolation of avian.Avian vocalization,which is a tool of intraspecific communication and interpecific and a kind of mechanism of intraspecific identification,is widely used in the phylogenetic studies.There are 15 kinds of cranes in the world,and 9 in China,which account for 60 percent.China holds most kinks of cranes.Vocal characters of 7 kinds of cranes (Demoiselle Crane,Black-necked Crane,Eurasian Crane,White Crane,Hood Crane,White-naped Crane,Black-necked Crane,Red-crowned Crane) were analysed in this article.Homologous songs were found to reflect the relationship among the cranes,and phylogenetic trees were set up by the basic physical character of the songs.The result was compared with phylogenetic trees established by sequence of Cytb.The spectrograms of the cranes were created and measured by the soft named Avisoft SAS-Lab.Then caused variables were selected by factor analysis with the soft stitistica6.O,by which the phylogenetic trees were established.The result shows that Red-crowned Crane,Hood Crane,Black-necked Crane and Eurasian Crane are belong to one branch,and White-naped Crane and White Crane are closer relative.The phylogenetic trees by sequences of Cytb,which were downed from Genbank,indicate that the 7 kinds fall into 3 groups.Demoiselle Crane is a separate branch,White Crane and White-naped Crane get together,and the others compose the third branch.This result is similar to phylogenetic trees established by vocal character.It is also found that Avian vocalizations are steady,which can be used as main identification characters among species.The frequency of syllables,but not duration, is the main factors of the songs. Though the breeding season songs are the crucial signal of mate contact and sexual selection,calls,which may better reflect genetic traits,probably are suit to studies of phylogenetic trees.Songs,as an action of avian behavior, are no doubt the main character of phylogenetic trees.To discuss phylogenesis of avian and to solute puzzle of taxology through avian acoustics,which integrate with morphologic,ecology,behavior and molecular biology and so on,is the primary trend of modern studies of avian vocalizations.