Phoenicopteriformes is a group of water

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s which comprises

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

s and their extinct relatives. Flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) and the closely related

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

s ( Podicipedidae) are contained in the parent

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Mirandornithes Mirandornithes () is a clade that consists of flamingos and grebes. Many scholars use the term Phoenicopterimorphae for the superorder containing flamingoes and grebes. Determining the relationships of both groups has been problematic. Flamingos ...

Fossil record

Flamingos and their relatives are well attested in the fossil record, with the first unequivocal member of the

Phoenicopteridae Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean ...

, ''

Elornis ''Elornis'' is an extinct genus of flamingo from the Late Oligocene of Ronzon, France. Although the name was coined in the 1850s, the name remained a nomen nudum until later publications by French zoologist Henri Milne-Edwards. ''Elornis'' has ...

'' known from the late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

epoch.

Relation to extinct palaelodids

The Palaelodidae – an extinct family of peculiar "swimming flamingos" – are believed to be the closest relatives of the modern flamingos, with the extinct genus ''

Juncitarsus ''Juncitarsus'' is an extinct genus of wading birds from the Eocene of the United States and Germany. Though previously considered a kind of prehistoric flamingo,Olson, S.L. And Feduccia, A. 1980. Relationship and evolution of flamingos (Aves: P ...

'' slightly more primitive than the

which contains flamingos and

s (

). The foot and wing anatomy of fossil palaelodids suggests that they were surface-swimming birds, rather than grebe-like divers as was proposed in the past. Whether swimmers or divers, that both primitive phoenicopteriforms and their closest relatives, the

s, were highly aquatic, indicates that the entire clade Mirandornithes evolved from aquatic, probably swimming ancestors.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7512165 Bird orders Extant Eocene first appearances Eocene taxonomic orders Oligocene taxonomic orders Miocene taxonomic orders Pliocene taxonomic orders Pleistocene taxonomic orders Holocene taxonomic orders Taxa named by Max Fürbringer