Browsing by Author "Mandiwana-Neudani, Tshifhiwa Gift"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Taxonomy and phylogeny of the South African Plocamium species Rhodophyta, Plocamiaceae
    (2009) Francis, Caitlynne Melanie; Bolton, John J; Mandiwana-Neudani, Tshifhiwa Gift; Anderson, Robert J
    A number of taxonomic accounts have been produced for species of the red alga Plocamium in South Africa and the rest of the world; yet, the use of phylogenetic analyses to understand relationships within the genus has only been incorporated in the last decade in Japan and Europe. We used morphological and DNA sequence characters (ITSJ-5.8S-ITS2) in both independent and combined Bayesian and parsimony analyses to investigate the relationships within South African Plocamium species and between South African Plocamium species and those from elsewhere. South African Plocamium forms a monophyletic group within the genus, and Plocamium is paraphyletic with respect to Plocamiocolax, the other genus in the family Plocamiaceae. The morphological and molecular phylogenies are incongruent; morphologically relationships resolve poorly toward the tips and several of the sister relationships resolved on the basis of the nuclear ITS marker are questionable. The results of this study revealed that phylogenetic relationships within Plocamium in South Africa are highly complex and particularly when evaluated in the context of the genus worldwide. The worldwide taxonomy of the genus is in need of full revision as this and several recent studies have highlighted incongruencies in the previous morphological taxonomic accounts of the genus.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of francolins ('Francolinus' spp.) Aves: Order Galliformes, Family Phasianidae
    (2014) Mandiwana-Neudani, Tshifhiwa Gift; Crowe, Timothy M; Bowie, Rauri Charles Kerr
    Francolins (Francolinus spp.) are small to medium-sized, sedentary, Old World, partridge/quail-like, terrestrial gamebirds (Order Galliformes) that occupy diverse habitats ranging from dry/open/scrubby lowland and montane grasslands, bushveld and savanna/woodland to mesic montane/lowland forests and forest edges. Some francolins have complex distribution patterns and also are morphologically, ecologically and behaviourally diverse. At the start of this research, Francolinus Stephens, 1819 was considered a monophyletic galliform genus comprising 41 species (36 African and five Asiatic) divided among eight putatively monophyletic species groups and four taxonomically enigmatic species. However, different taxonomic revisions, especially post Hall's (1963) classic monograph, challenged the monophyletic status of the genus and that of some of its designated species groups differed markedly in the number of recognized subspecies. Furthermore, there was debate concerning the geographical origin of the genus: Asia versus Africa. Some of the early molecular research on a few exemplar francolin species based on partial mitochondrial Cytochrome-b DNA sequences and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLPs) also challenged the monophyly of the genus and that of some of Hall's (1963) species groups. These findings suggested that francolins may form at least two distantly related lineages called 'patryse' (partridges) and 'fisante' (pheasants) by Afrikaans-speaking people. Patryse, or 'true' francolins, had been divided into as many as five genera (Francolinus, Ortygornis, Dendroperdix, Peliperdix, Scleroptila) and fisante, or spurfowls, all grouped into a single genus, Pternistis. Research in this thesis is based on: mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences (5554 base pairs), organismal and vocal characters of francolins and spurfowls.