Cavitaves is a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
that contains the order
Leptosomiformes (cuckoo roller) and the clade
Eucavitaves (a large assemblage of birds that includes
woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...
s,
kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
s and
trogons).
[Naish, D. (2012). "Birds." Pp. 379–423 in Brett-Surman, M.K., Holtz, T.R., and Farlow, J. O. (eds.), ''The Complete Dinosaur (Second Edition)''. Indiana University Press (Bloomington & Indianapolis).] This group was defined in the ''
PhyloCode
The ''International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature'', known as the ''PhyloCode'' for short, is a formal set of rules governing phylogenetic nomenclature. Its current version is specifically designed to regulate the naming of clades, leaving the ...
'' by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing ''
Leptosomus discolor'' and ''
Picus viridis''".
The name refers to the fact that the majority of them nest in cavities.
References
Neognathae
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