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Bird Families
This article lists living orders and families of birds. The links below should then lead to family accounts and hence to individual species. The passerines (perching birds) alone account for well over 5,000 species. In total there are about 10,000 species of birds described worldwide, though one estimate of the real number places it at almost twice that. Taxonomy is very fluid in the age of DNA analysis, so comments are made where appropriate, and all numbers are approximate. In particular see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for a very different classification. Phylogeny Cladogram of modern bird relationships based on Jarvis, E.D. et al. (2014) with some clade names after Yuri, T. et al. (2013). Paleognathae The Paleognathae, or "old jaws", are one of the two superorders recognized within the taxonomic class Aves and consist of the ratites and tinamous. The ratites are mostly large and long-legged, flightless birds, lacking a keeled sternum. Traditionally, all the ratites we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Penguins At Salisbury Plain (5719466981)
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European languages, Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership (c.f. Indic ''rājan'', Gothic ''reiks'', and Old Irish ''rí'', etc.). *In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate in Latin as ''rex (king), rex'' and in Greek as ''archon'' or ''basileus''. *In classical European feudalism, the title of ''king'' as the ruler of a ''kingdom'' is understood to be the highest rank in the feudal order, potentially subject, at least nominally, only to an emperor (harking back to the List of Roman client kings, client kings of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire). *In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassowaries
Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel (bird anatomy), keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and East Indonesia), Aru Islands (Maluku), and northeastern Australia.. Three species are Extant taxon, extant: The most common, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. The other two species are represented by the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary; the northern cassowary is the most recently discovered and the most threatened. A fourth but extinct species is represented by the pygmy cassowary. Cassowaries Frugivore, feed mainly on fruit, although all species are truly Omnivore, omnivorous and take a range of other plant foods, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odontopterygiformes
The Pelagornithidae, commonly called pelagornithids, pseudodontorns, bony-toothed birds, false-toothed birds or pseudotooth birds, are a prehistoric family of large seabirds. Their fossil remains have been found all over the world in rocks dating between the Early Paleocene and the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary. Most of the common names refer to these birds' most notable trait: tooth-like points on their beak's edges, which, unlike true teeth, contained Volkmann's canals and were outgrowths of the premaxillary and mandibular bones. Even "small" species of pseudotooth birds were the size of albatrosses; the largest ones had wingspans estimated at 5–6 metres (15–20 ft) and were among the largest flying birds ever to live. They were the dominant seabirds of most oceans throughout most of the Cenozoic, and modern humans apparently missed encountering them only by a tiny measure of evolutionary time: the last known pelagornithids were contemporaries of ''Homo habilis'' and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odontoanserae
The Odontoanserae is a proposed clade that includes the family Pelagornithidae (pseudo-toothed birds) and the clade Anserimorphae (the order Anseriformes and their stem-relatives). The placement of the pseudo-toothed birds in the evolutionary tree of birds has been problematic, with some supporting the placement of them near the orders Procellariformes and Pelecaniformes based on features in the sternum. In 2005 a cladistic analysis had found support in placing pseudo-toothed birds as the sister group to waterfowl. Evidence for this comes from shared characteristics in the skull such as lack of a crest on the underside of the palatine bone and two condyles on the mandibular process of the quadrate bone, with the middle condyle beakwards of the side condyle. In addition to that, both groups have similar features in their pelvic and pectoral regions. Furthermore, a 2013 study on the growth pattern and structure of the pseudoteeth in ''Pelagornis mauretanicus'' shows more support o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galliformes
Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often reared by humans for their meat and eggs, or hunted as game birds. The order contains about 290 species, inhabiting every continent except Antarctica, and divided into five families: Phasianidae (including chicken, quail, partridges, pheasants, turkeys, peafowl (peacocks) and grouse), Odontophoridae (New World quail), Numididae (guinea fowl), Cracidae (including chachalacas and curassows), and Megapodiidae (incubator birds like malleefowl and brush-turkeys). They adapt to most environments except for innermost deserts and perpetual ice. Many gallinaceous species are skilled runners and escape predators by running rather than flying. Males of most species are more colorful than the females, with often elaborate courtship behaviors t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neognathae
Neognathae (; ) is a infraclass of birds, called neognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. Neognathae includes the majority of living birds; the exceptions being the tinamous and the flightless ratites, which belong instead to the sister taxon Palaeognathae. There are nearly 10,000 living species of neognaths. The earliest fossils are known from the very end of the Cretaceous but molecular clocks suggest that neognaths originated sometime in the first half of the Late Cretaceous, about 90 million years ago. Since then, they have undergone adaptive radiation, producing the diversity of form, function, and behavior that exists today. Neognathae includes the order Passeriformes (perching birds), one of the largest orders of land vertebrates, containing some 60% of living birds. Passeriformes is twice as species-rich as Rodentia and about five times as species-rich as Chiroptera (bats), which are the two largest orders of mammals. Neognathae also contains some ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinamou
Tinamous () form an order of birds called Tinamiformes (), comprising a single family called Tinamidae (), divided into two distinct subfamilies, containing 46 species found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The word "tinamou" comes from the Galibi term for these birds, ''tinamu''. Tinamous have traditionally been regarded as the sister group of the flightless ratites, but recent work places them well within the ratite radiation, implying basal ratites could fly. Tinamous first appear in the fossil record in the Miocene epoch. They are generally sedentary, ground-dwelling and, though not flightless, when possible avoid flight in favour of hiding or running away from danger. They are found in a variety of habitats, ranging from semi-arid alpine grasslands to tropical rainforests. The two subfamilies are broadly divided by habitat, with the Nothurinae referred to as steppe or open country tinamous, and the Tinaminae known as forest tinamous. Although some species are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithornithiformes
Lithornithidae is an extinct, possibly paraphyletic (but see below) group of early paleognath birds. They are known from fossils dating to the Upper Paleocene through the Middle Eocene of North America and Europe, with possible Late Cretaceous representatives. All are extinct today; the youngest specimen is the currently unnamed SGPIMH MEV1 specimen from the mid-Eocene Messel Pit site. Lithornithids had long, slender, bills for probing. They closely resembled modern tinamous. They possessed a rhynchokinetic skull with relatively unfused cranial bones, a weakly fused pygostyle and a splenial. The unguals were more curved than in tinamous and probably allowed better perching in trees. The order Lithornithiformes was erected by Dr. Peter Houde in 1988. Initially, only three genera (''Lithornis'', ''Paracathartes'', and ''Pseudocrypturus'') and eight named species were included. ''Promusophaga'' (Harrison & Walker, 1977) originally considered a stem-turaco, is considered synonymou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinornithiformes
Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as Kale moa and Moa Samoa. Moa or MOA may also refer to: People * Moa (name) * Mohammed Abdellaoue (born 1985), Norwegian football player nicknamed "Moa" * Moa Lignell (born 1994), Swedish singer * Moa Kikuchi (菊地 最愛 Kikuchi Moa, born July 4, 1999), a Japanese idol, singer, and model. Places ;Islands * Moa (Indonesia), one of the Leti Islands * Moa Island (Queensland), in Australia ;Malls * Mall of Alnor, in Maguindanao, Philippines * Mall of America, in Minnesota, United States * SM Mall of Asia, in Manila, Philippines ;Rivers * Moa River, in west Africa * Moa River (Brazil) * Moa River (Cuba) ;Towns and villages * Moa, Cuba * Moa, Niger * Moa, Mkinga District, in Tanga Region, Tanzania Ship of the New Zealand Navy * ''Moa'' class patrol boat, built between 1978 and 1985 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephant Bird
Elephant birds are members of the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae, made up of flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have become extinct around 1000-1200 CE, probably as a result of human activity. Elephant birds comprised the genera ''Mullerornis'', ''Vorombe'' and ''Aepyornis''. While they were in close geographical proximity to the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi (found only in New Zealand), suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead evolved from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying. In September 2018, scientists determined that ''Vorombe titan'' reached weights of and stood tall, making it the world's largest and heaviest bird, slightly larger than the much older ''Dromornis stirtoni''. Other members of the family were also very large, exhibiting the phenomenon of island gigantism. Description Elephant birds have been extinct since at lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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