Vicariance is thought to have played a major role in the evolution of modern parrots. However, as the
relationships especially of the African taxa remained mostly unresolved, it has been difficult to draw firm
conclusions about the roles of dispersal and vicariance. Our analyses using the broadest taxon sampling
of old world parrots ever based on 3219 bp of three nuclear genes revealed well-resolved and congruent
phylogenetic hypotheses. Agapornis of Africa and Madagascar was found to be the sister group to Loriculus
of Australasia and Indo-Malayasia and together they clustered with the Australasian Loriinae, Cyclopsittacini
and Melopsittacus. Poicephalus and Psittacus from mainland Africa formed the sister group of
the Neotropical Arini and Coracopsis from Madagascar and adjacent islands may be the closest relative
of Psittrichas from New Guinea. These biogeographic relationships are best explained by independent colonization
of the African continent via trans-oceanic dispersal from Australasia and Antarctica in the
Paleogene following what may have been vicariance events in the late Cretaceous and/or early Paleogene.
Our data support a taxon pulse model for the diversification of parrots whereby trans-oceanic dispersal
played a more important role than previously thought and was the prerequisite for range expansion into
new continents.