Goshawk Genomics: Genome Wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms ( SNPs ) Confirm Species Status of Astur gentilis and Astur atricap

ABSTRACT

The Astur [ gentilis ] superspecies comprising five species has a long record of taxonomic debate. Recent evidence based on mitochondrial data, limited genomic data and bioacoustics suggested a Nearctic‐Palearctic split of the former Holarctic species Astur gentilis , leading to a taxonomic revision of classifying Palearctic Astur gentilis and Nearctic Astur atricapillus as separate species. To complement these previous efforts, we generated genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphisms via ddRAD sequencing from historical museum specimens spanning the superspecies' range to provide evidence from nuclear genomic data. After stringent quality filtering, the final dataset comprised 53 individuals including one outgroup ( Accipiter nisus ) that were genotyped at 39,903 single nucleotide polymorphisms, representing Astur gentilis and A. atricapillus as well as A. melanoleucus from Africa and A. henstii from Madagascar. Phylogenetic analyses based on Maximum likelihood and Maximum parsimony yielded congruent topologies mirroring prior mitochondrial results, with Nearctic and Palearctic goshawks forming reciprocally well‐supported clades. African and Malagasy taxa ( A. melanoleucus and A. henstii ) emerged as sister group of the Palearctic A. gentilis clade. Multivariate clustering and indices of pairwise genomic fixation and differentiation underlined the strong genome‐wide divergence between Palearctic and Nearctic goshawks. Beyond resolving a long‐standing taxonomic puzzle, our findings carry immediate implications for conservation assessment, legal protection frameworks and future research that should treat Nearctic and Palearctic lineages independently. Museum collections proved essential for comprehensive taxon sampling in an elusive, conservation‐sensitive group, demonstrating the power of historical specimens to untangle raptor phylogenies.