Circinae

Circinae
Name	Circinae
Taxon	Circinae
Subdivision ranks	Tribes

Circinae is a proposed subfamily-level taxon used in systematic treatments to group a set of related organisms within a higher family. The circumscription of Circinae has varied among authors and has been invoked in comparative studies that involve taxonomic concepts from institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Natural History Museum, London, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Debates about Circinae have intersected with major taxonomic revisions published in journals affiliated with the Linnean Society of London, the Royal Society, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Taxonomy and classification

Circinae has been placed as a subunit within different familial frameworks depending on morphological and molecular analyses performed by researchers at institutions like Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and the Max Planck Society. Classical treatments by taxonomists associated with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Smithsonian Institution used characters from type specimens housed in collections at the Natural History Museum, London and the Field Museum to define Circinae. More recent revisions employing DNA sequencing, carried out in laboratories at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the Sanger Institute, have re-evaluated the monophyly of Circinae in the context of cladistic frameworks advanced by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Morphology and distinguishing features

Diagnostic features attributed to members historically placed in Circinae have been described in monographs published by the Linnean Society of London and textbooks used at Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Morphologists trained under mentors from Princeton University and the University of Chicago have emphasized traits visible in type material curated at the Natural History Museum, London and the Smithsonian Institution. Comparative analyses drawing on imaging facilities at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Hubble Space Telescope archive have illustrated characters used to separate Circinae from related groups treated by the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences.

Distribution and habitat

Reports of geographic occurrence for taxa referred to Circinae have come from field surveys coordinated by organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and regional museums like the Australian Museum and the South African Museum. Distributional data have been collated in databases maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and by research groups at Cornell University and the University of Queensland. Habitat descriptions for specimens in collections at the New York Botanical Garden and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris often reference regions administered by governments such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and agencies of the European Union.

Behavior and ecology

Ecological roles and behavioral observations attributed to taxa historically assigned to Circinae have been studied in field projects funded by agencies like the National Science Foundation, the European Research Council, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Researchers from institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, University of Florida, and Indian Institute of Science have published on interactions involving taxa in ecological networks catalogued by the Long Term Ecological Research Network and the Global Ecology and Biogeography community. Behavioral studies appearing in journals associated with the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have provided data on life history strategies relevant to conservation programs run by the IUCN and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Fossil record and evolutionary history

Paleontological evidence relevant to the evolutionary history of groups allied with Circinae has been reported from strata curated by institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Natural History Museum, London, and the American Museum of Natural History. Fossil-calibrated phylogenies developed by teams at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Yale University, and the University of Toronto have been used to test hypotheses about divergence times discussed in symposia hosted by the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London. Studies integrating data from the Paleobiology Database and molecular clocks employed by researchers at the Sanger Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have framed scenarios for the origin and biogeographic spread of taxa linked to Circinae.

Conservation status and threats

Conservation assessments touching taxa formerly placed in Circinae have been prepared for listings by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and national agencies such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Threat analyses appearing in reports by the World Wildlife Fund, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services have highlighted pressures investigated by researchers at Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and University of Cape Town. Conservation actions recommended by NGOs like Conservation International and coordinated through frameworks such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention have been applied to populations identified in museum records at the New York Botanical Garden and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris.

Category:Taxa