Sapayoa
| Broad-billed sapayoa | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sapayoa aenigma, Nusagandi, Panama | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Suborder: | Tyranni |
| Family: | Sapayoidae, see text |
| Genus: |
Sapayoa Hartert, 1903 |
| Species: | S. aenigma |
| Binomial name | |
|
Sapayoa aenigma Hartert, 1903 |
|
The sapayoa or broad-billed sapayoa (Sapayoa aenigma) is a suboscine passerine found in lowland rainforests in Panama and northwest South America. As the epithet aenigma ("the ") implies, its relationships have long been elusive. It is easy to overlook, but appears to be common in a wide range and is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
It has always been considered a monotypic genus, Sapayoa, and historically regarded as a New World suboscine; in particular, it was assigned to the manakin family (Pipridae). However, the species was listed as incertae sedis (position uncertain) in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, because
"preliminary DNA-DNA hybridization comparisons ... indicate that this species is either a relative of the Old World Eurylaimidae or a sister group of all other Tyrannida, as suggested by earlier biochemical studies .... In any event, it is not a close relative of manakins or any other recent tyrannoid."
More recent research suggests that it is not a New World suboscine at all, but an Old World suboscine. In 2004, it was shown that the sapayoa is an outlier to the New World suboscines. In an earlier analysis based on nDNA myoglobin intron 2 and GAPDH intron 11 sequence data, the authors found the sapayoa
"as a deep branch in the group of broadbills and pittas of the Old World tropics."
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Wikipedia