The Tyranni (suboscines) are a suborder of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

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 lightweig ...

s that includes more than 1,000

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, the large majority of which are

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n. It is named after the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...

'' Tyrannus''. These have a different

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

of the syrinx

musculature Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle ...

than the

oscine A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

s (songbirds of the larger suborder Passeri), hence the common name of ''suboscines''. The available morphological, DNA sequence, and biogeographical data, as well as the (scant)

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

record, agree that these two major passerine suborders are

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

arily distinct clades.

Systematics

The suborder Tyranni is divided into two infraorders: the Eurylaimides and the Tyrannides. The New Zealand wrens in the family

Acanthisittidae The New Zealand wrens are a family (Acanthisittidae) of tiny passerines endemic to New Zealand. They were represented by seven Holocene species in four or five genera, although only two species in two genera survive today. They are understood to ...

are placed in a separate suborder Acanthisitti. The Eurylaimides contain the Old World suboscines – mainly distributed in tropical regions around the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

– and a single

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

species, the

sapayoa The sapayoa or broad-billed sapayoa (''Sapayoa aenigma'') is a suboscine passerine found in lowland rainforests in Panama and north-western South America. As the epithet ''aenigma'' ("the enigma") implies, its relationships have long been elusive ...

: *

Philepittidae The asities are a family of birds, Philepittidae, that are endemic to Madagascar. The asities consist of four species in two genera. The ''Neodrepanis'' species are known as sunbird-asities and were formerly known as false sunbirds.del Hoyo, J. ...

: asities *

Eurylaimidae The Eurylaimidae are a family of suboscine passerine birds that occur from the eastern Himalayas to Indonesia and the Philippines. The family previously included the sapayoa from the Neotropics, the asities from Madagascar, and the Calyptomeni ...

: typical broadbills *

Calyptomenidae Calyptomenidae is a family of passerine birds found in Africa, the Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula ( Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and a ...

: African and green broadbills *

Sapayoidae The sapayoa or broad-billed sapayoa (''Sapayoa aenigma'') is a suboscine passerine found in lowland rainforests in Panama and north-western South America. As the epithet ''aenigma'' ("the enigma") implies, its relationships have long been elusive ...

: broad-billed sapayoa * Pittidae: pittas Phylogenetic relationships of the Eurylaimides based on Oliveros et al. (2019): The Tyrannides contain all the suboscines from the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

except the broad-billed sapayoa. The families listed here are those recognised by the

International Ornithologists' Union The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC). *

Pipridae The manakins are a family, Pipridae, of small suboscine passerine birds. The group contains some 54 species distributed through the American tropics. The name is from Middle Dutch ''mannekijn'' "little man" (also the source of the different bird ...

: manakins * Cotingidae: cotingas *

Tityridae Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyrannidae, Pipridae and Cotingidae (''see Taxonomy''). As yet, no widely ac ...

: tityras, sharpbill, becards (includes ''

Oxyruncus The sharpbill (''Oxyruncus cristatus'') is a small passerine bird in the family Tityridae. Its range is from the mountainous areas of tropical South America and southern Central America (Panama and Costa Rica). It inhabits the canopy of wet for ...

'' and '' Onychorhynchus'') *

Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds known to exist in the world, with more than 400 species. They are the most dive ...

: tyrant-flycatchers (includes ''

Piprites ''Piprites'' is a genus of bird traditionally placed in the family Tyrannidae. Species The genus ''Piprites'' contains 3 species: References

Piprites, Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Pipridae-stub ...

'', ''

Platyrinchus The spadebills are a ''genus'', ''Platyrinchus'', of Central and South American passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. They have broad, flat, triangular bills. The genus was erected by the French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan De ...

'', '' Tachuris'' and ''

Rhynchocyclus ''Rhynchocyclus'' is a genus of tyrant flycatchers. Established by Jean Cabanis in 1836. Species It contains four species: The name ''Rhynchocyclus'' is a combination of the Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to ...

'') * Melanopareiidae: crescent chests *

Conopophagidae The gnateaters are a bird family, Conopophagidae, consisting of ten small passerine species in two genera, which occur in South and Central America. The family was formerly restricted to the gnateater genus ''Conopophaga''; analysis of mtDNA cy ...

: gnateaters and gnatpittas *

Thamnophilidae The antbirds are a large passerine bird family, Thamnophilidae, found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. There are more than 230 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, fire ...

: antbirds *

Grallariidae Grallariidae is a family of smallish passerine birds of subtropical and tropical Central and South America known as antpittas. They are between 10 and 20 cm (4–8 in) in length, and are related to the antbirds, Thamnophilidae, and gna ...

: antpittas * Rhinocryptidae: tapaculos *

Formicariidae Formicariidae is a family of smallish passerine birds of subtropical and tropical Central and South America known as formicariids. They are between in length, and are related to the antbirds, Thamnophilidae, and gnateaters, Conopophagidae. This ...

: antthrushes * Furnariidae: ovenbirds and woodcreepers (includes Dendrocolaptidae) Phylogenetic relationships of the Tyrannides based on Oliveros et al. (2019): This group has been separated into three

parvorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

s by Sibley & Ahlquist. However, DNA:DNA hybridization did not reliably resolve the suboscine

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

. It was eventually determined that there was a simple dichotomy between the antbirds and allies (tracheophones), and the tyrant-flycatchers and allies. Given that the "parvorder" arrangement originally advanced is obsolete (see e.g. Irestedt ''et al.'' 2002 for tracheophone phylogeny) — more so if the Eurylaimides are elevated to a distinct suborder — it is better to rank the clades as superfamilies or, if the broadbill group is considered a separate suborder, as infraorders. In the former case, the name Furnarioidea would be available for the tracheophones, whereas "Tyrannoidea", the "bronchophone" equivalent, has not yet been formally defined. In the latter case, the tracheophones would be classified as "Furnariides", See remark at "Tyrannoidea". This peculiarity is explained by the fact that Sibley & Ahlquist's analyses erroneously suggested an overly complex phylogeny for the tracheophones, and a much simpler one for the tyrant-flycatchers and allies. while the Tyrannides would be restricted to the tyrant-flycatchers and other "bronchophone" families. The tracheophones contain the Furnariidae, Thamnophilidae, Formicariidae (probably including most tapaculos), and Conopophagidae. The tyrant-flycatcher clade includes the namesake family, the Tityridae, the Cotingidae, and the Pipridae.

Systematics

References

Further reading