Convergent evolution of arid-adapted passerines

These results confirmed the pattern of abundant convergent evolution, especially in wheatears. The high levels of gene tree heterogeneity in wheatears were explained by ILS alone only for 30% of internal branches. For multiple branches with high gene tree heterogeneity, D-statistics and phylogenetic networks identified footprints of introgression. Finally, long branches without extensive ILS between clades sporting similar phenotypes provided suggestive evidence for the role of novel mutations in the evolution of these phenotypes. Together, our results suggested that convergent evolution in open-habitat chats involved diverse processes and highlighted that phenotypic diversification is often complex and best depicted as a network of interacting lineages.