Brian S. Arbogast

TL;DR: A review of recent advances in estimating divergence times from molecular data, emphasizing the continuum between processes at the phylogenetic and population genetic scales, and the importance of model testing during the process of divergence time estimation.

TL;DR: Some of the common misconceptions surrounding comparative phylogeography are addressed, an example of this approach based on the boreal mammal fauna of North America is provided, and it is argued that together with other approaches, this approach can contribute importantly to the authors' understanding of the relationship between earth history and biotic diversification.

TL;DR: The analyses indicate that Nesomimus is nested within the traditional genus Mimus, making the latter paraphyletic, and that the closest living relatives of Galapagos mockingbirds appear to be those currently found in North America, northern South America, and the Caribbean, rather than the geographically nearest species in continental Ecuador.

TL;DR: It is concluded that sequence divergence values and corresponding estimates of times of evolutionary divergence between presumptive sister pairs of North American songbirds were sufficiently large to reject a Late Pleistocene Origins model (LPO model, 2) for most species.

TL;DR: The mtDNA discontinuity in the Pacific Northwest within G. sabrinus is congruent with similar disjunctions in a variety of vertebrate taxa, suggesting that an ancestral North American boreal ecosystem may have been divided into two distinct communities at this time.