Reconstruction of geographic patterns of speciation and reexamination of species limits in the Thamnophilidae and Grallariidae of the Neotropics, employing vocal and other behavioral as well as morphological data, in the context of molecular based phylogenies being developed by T. Chesser (Division of Birds) and other collaborators at Louisiana State University, The Field Museum, and the University do Los Andes (Bogotá). Development of an understanding of the evolution of vocal characters by ‘mapping’ them on an molecular-based phylogeny of the Thamnophilidae.
