Urbanization alters avian communities, generally lowering the number of species and contemporaneously increasing their functional relatedness, leading to biotic homogenization. Urbanization can also negatively affect the phylogenetic diversity of species assemblages, potentially decreasing their evolutionary distinctiveness. We compare species assemblages in a gradient of building density in seventeen European cities to test whether the evolutionary distinctiveness of communities is shaped by the degree of urbanization. We found a significant decline in the evolutionary uniqueness of avian communities in highly dense urban areas, compared to low and medium-dense areas. Overall, communities from dense city centers supported one million years of evolutionary history less than communities from low-dense urban areas. Such evolutionary homogenization was due to a filtering process of the most evolutionarily unique birds. Metrics related to evolutionary uniqueness have to play a role when assessing the effects of urbanization and can be used to identify local conservation priorities.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Faculty of Environmental Sciences Kamýcká 129 CZ 165 00 Prague 6 Czech Republic

Department of Biogeography and Global Change Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales E 28006 Madrid Spain

Department of Biology University of Turku Turku Finland

Department of Plant Pathology Institute of Plant Protection Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences Ménesi út 44 1118 Budapest Hungary

Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology Faculty of Science Palacky University in Olomouc Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Zoology Faculty of Sciences University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Zoology Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Department of Zoology Poznań University of Life Sciences Wojska Polskiego 71C PL 60 625 Poznań Poland

Department of Zoology School of Biology Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 54124 Thessaloniki Greece

Ecologie Systématique Evolution Université Paris Sud CNRS AgroParisTech Université Paris Saclay F 91405 Orsay Cedex France

Estonian Environmental Board Roheline 64 80010 Pärnu Estonia

Institute for Environmental Studies Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Staré Město Czech Republic

Institute of Biological Sciences University of Zielona Góra Prof Szafrana St 1 PL 65 16 Zielona Góra Poland

Nature Inventory and EIA services Arctic Centre University of Lapland P O Box 122 FI 96101 Rovaniemi Finland

Plegadis Riga Feraiou 6A 45444 Ioannina Greece

Rue des Roses 87200 Chaillac sur Vienne France

S C della Pantiera 23 61029 Pantiera Urbino Italy

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