The Tyranni (suboscines) are a
suborder
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 ...
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 t ...
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 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 southe ...
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 f ...
''
Tyrannus
''Tyrannus'' is a genus of small passerine birds of the tyrant flycatcher family native to the Americas. The majority are named as kingbirds. Description
They prefer semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on an exposed perch and then catch i ...
''.
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 its ...
of the
syrinx
In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx (Greek Σύριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river's edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, sh ...
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 500 ...
s (songbirds of the larger suborder Passeri), hence the common name of ''suboscines''. The available
morphological,
DNA sequence
DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...
, and
biogeographical
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...
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
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, ...
s.
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
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
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 th ...
– 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 biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biod ...
: 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 and Borneo. There are six species in two genera.
The species in this family were formerly included in the broadbill family Eurylaimidae
The Eurylaimidae are 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 spec ...
. It was eventually determined that there was a simple dichotomy
A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be
* jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and
* mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simulta ...
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.
References
Further reading
*
*Irestedt, Martin; Fjeldså, Jon; Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G.P. (2002): Systematic relationships and biogeography of the tracheophone suboscines (Aves: Passeriformes). ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 23(3): 499–512. (HTML abstract)
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q768526
Bird suborders
Extant Eocene first appearances