[Taxacom] AVES Classification (Feb. 2007)

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
      Here is my present classification of Class Aves, modified from the one 
presented here in January 2006.  I had hoped to do a little more "tweaking" 
of the phylogeny of Subclass Archaeornithes, but Subclass Neornithes is now 
far more interesting, and I just don't have the time right now to (once 
again) slog through the conflicting phylogenies of primitive birds at the 
present time.  Perhaps if literature access begins to become more open and 
less costly, it will be easier to evaluate those phylogenies.

          CLASS AVES (sensu Kinman, 2002)        (modifications from Jan. 
2006 through Feb. 2007)++

1  ARCHAEORNITHES%
        1  Archaeopterygiformes%
                1  Troodontidae
                ?  Plesion Alvarezsaurus
                2  Velociraptoridae
                B  Dromaeosauridae
                3  Microraptoridae
                ?  Sinovenatoridae
                4  Unenlagiidae
                5  Scansoriopterygidae
                6  Archaeopterygidae
                ?  Pl. Protarchaeopteryx
                7  Plesion Rahonavis
                8 {{expanded Avebrevicauda}}
        _1_ Yandangornithiformes
         ?  Pl. Shenzhouraptor
         2  Omnivoropterygiformes
         ?  Pl. Caudipteryx
         3  Oviraptoriformes
         4  Caenagnathiformes
         ?  Pl. Nomingia
         ?  Avimimiformes
         5  Mononykiformes
         6  Confuciusornithiformes
         7  Longipterygiformes
         B  Iberomesornithiformes
         C  Enantiornithiformes
         D  Gobipterygiformes
         8  Chaoyangiiformes
         9  Patagopterygiformes
         ?  Pl. Hongshanornis
        10  Yanornithiformes
        11  Ambiortiformes
        12  Hesperornithiformes
        13  Ichthyornithiformes
        14  Pl. Limenavis
        15  Pl. Iaceornis
        16  {{Neornithes}}

_a_ NEORNITHES (crown clade, "modern" birds)
         1  Tinamiformes
         B  Lithornithiformes (extinct)
        _a_ Struthioniformes (ratites)
         2  Galliformes
         B  Anseriformes
         3  Pterocliformes
         B  Columbiformes
         ?  Opisthocomiformes (hoatzin)
         C  Caprimulgiformes
        _a_  Apodiformes
        _b_  Phaethontiformes
         D  Mesitornithiformes
         E  Eurypygiformes
              1  Messelornithidae (extinct)
              B  Eurypygidae
              2  Rhynochetidae
              3  Aptornithidae (extinct)
         F  Phoenicopteriformes
         G  Podicipediformes
         4  Turniciformes
         B  Charadriiformes
         5  Gruiformes (sensu stricto)
         ?  Otidiformes
         6  Ciconiiformes
         B  Pelecaniformes
         C  Procellariformes
         7  Cuculiformes
         8  Accipitriformes (hawks, vultures,
                   and cuckoo-rollers)
         B  Strigiformes
         9  Passeriformes
         B  Psittaciformes
         C  Falconiformes (sensu stricto)
         D  Cariamiformes
        10  Coliiformes
        11  Bucerotiformes
        12  Coraciiformes (sensu stricto)
         B  Alcediniformes
         ?  Trogoniformes
        13  Piciformes
*********************************
++NOTES:  Most of the modifications this year were within Subclass 
Neornithes.  I finally decided to formally merge Rhynochetiformes into 
Eurypygiformes (and therefore I've broken it down to family level here).  
Most other changes are reordering and recoding some of the Orders in the 
Coronaves (clades 4-13).  I was tempted to also merge Cariamiformes into 
Falconiformes (sensu stricto), but for now I'm keeping them as separate (but 
sister) groups at ordinal level.  Order Accipitriformes contains most of 
what was formerly included in Falconiformes, as well as the Cathartidae, so 
the all vultures are in one Order again (even if they probably don't clade 
together within it; so the two groups of vultures are more like a case of 
parallelism than of convergence).  Believe it or not, the cuckoo-roller may 
be the closest thing we have to an ancestral accipitriform.  But watching a 
cuckoo-roller soar overhead, it certainly looks like a hawk that was crossed 
with a New World vulture.  Anyway, if my phylogeny is correct, it is more 
cuckoo than it is roller, and more importantly, on its way (both 
morphologically and molecularly) to becoming a vulture/hawk.

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