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Afroaves

Last updated July 22, 2025
Clade of birds

Afroaves
Temporal range: Paleocene to present
Snowy Owl - Schnee-Eule.jpg
Snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Telluraves
Clade: Afroaves
Ericson, 2012
Subclades
  • Hieraves
  • Coraciimorphae

Afroaves is a clade of birds, consisting of the kingfishers and kin (Coraciiformes), woodpeckers and kin (Piciformes), hornbills and kin (Bucerotiformes), trogons (Trogoniformes), cuckoo roller (Leptosomiformes), mousebirds (Coliiformes), owls (Strigiformes) and raptors (Accipitriformes). [1] [2] The most basal clades are predatory, suggesting the last common ancestor of Afroaves was also a predatory bird. [2] This group was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Accipiter nisus , Colius colius , and Picus viridis , but not Passer domesticus ". [3]

Phylogeny

The following cladogram of Afroaves relationships is based on Stiller et al (2024). [4]

Afroaves
Hieraves

Accipitriformes (hawks and relatives) Gyps fulvus -Basque Country-8 white background.jpg Maakotka (Aquila chrysaetos) by Jarkko Jarvinen white background.jpg

Strigiformes (owls) Cuvier-12-Hibou a huppe courte.jpg

Coraciimorphae

Coliiformes (mousebirds)

Cavitaves

Leptosomiformes (cuckoo roller)

Eucavitaves

Trogoniformes (trogons) Trogon surrucura brazil white background.jpg

Picocoraciae

Bucerotiformes (hornbills and relatives)

Nordlig hornkorp white background.jpg

Picodynastornithes

Coraciiformes Halcyon smyrnensis in India (8277355382) white background.jpg

Piciformes Dendrocopos major -Durham, England -female-8 white background.jpg Ramphastos toco -Stadtgartnerei Zurich - 20100919 white background.jpg

Afroaves has not always been recovered as a monophyletic clade in subsequent studies. For instance, Prum et al. (2015) recovered the accipitrimorphs as the sister group to a clade (Eutelluraves) comprising the remaining afroavian orders and Australaves, [5] while an analysis by Houde et al. (2019) recovered a clade of accipitrimorphs and owls as sister to the remaining landbirds. [6] Wu et al. (2024) also found recovered and found support the clade of accipitrimorphs and owls (which they have named Hieraves), but found the clade to be sister to Australaves. [7] Kukl et al. (2020) obtained an identical arrangement to Jarvis et al. (2014) but the position of the Strigiformes was only weakly supported by their data. [8] Stiller et al. (2024) recovered the Afroaves as a clade but with the Strigiformes as sister to the Accipitrimorphae, rather than sister to the Coraciimorphae as in the Jarvis tree. Stiller et al. (2024) found that the support for their placement of the Strigiformes increased when additional taxa were included in the analysis. [4]

Afroaves and alternative phylogenetic arrangements
Jarvis et al. (2014) [2]
Telluraves
Afroaves

Accipitrimorphae

Strigiformes

Coraciimorphae

Australaves

Prum et al. (2015) [5]
Telluraves

Accipitriformes

Eutelluraves

Strigiformes

Coraciimorphae

Australaves

Houde et al (2019) [6]
Telluraves

Accipitrimorphae

Strigiformes

Coraciimorphae

Australaves

Wu et al (2024) [7]
Telluraves

Coraciimorphae

Hieraves

Accipitrimorphae

Strigiformes

Australaves

Stiller et al (2024) [4]
Telluraves
Afroaves

Strigiformes

Accipitriformes

Coraciimorphae

Australaves

References

  1. ↑ Ericson, P.G. (2012). "Evolution of terrestrial birds in three continents: biogeography and parallel radiations" (PDF). Journal of Biogeography. 39 (5): 813–824. Bibcode:2012JBiog..39..813E. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02650.x. S2CID   85599747.
  2. 1 2 3 Jarvis, E. D.; Mirarab, S.; Aberer, A. J.; Li, B.; Houde, P.; Li, C.; Ho, S. Y. W.; Faircloth, B. C.; Nabholz, B.; Howard, J. T.; Suh, A.; Weber, C. C.; Da Fonseca, R. R.; Li, J.; Zhang, F.; Li, H.; Zhou, L.; Narula, N.; Liu, L.; Ganapathy, G.; Boussau, B.; Bayzid, M. S.; Zavidovych, V.; Subramanian, S.; Gabaldon, T.; Capella-Gutierrez, S.; Huerta-Cepas, J.; Rekepalli, B.; Munch, K.; et al. (2014). "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds" (PDF). Science. 346 (6215): 1320–1331. Bibcode:2014Sci...346.1320J. doi:10.1126/science.1253451. hdl:10072/67425. PMC   4405904 . PMID   25504713. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  3. ↑ Sangster, George; Braun, Edward L.; Johansson, Ulf S.; Kimball, Rebecca T.; Mayr, Gerald; Suh, Alexander (2022-01-01). "Phylogenetic definitions for 25 higher-level clade names of birds" (PDF). Avian Research. 13: 100027. Bibcode:2022AvRes..1300027S. doi: 10.1016/j.avrs.2022.100027 . ISSN   2053-7166.
  4. 1 2 3 Stiller, J.; et al. (2024). "Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes". Nature. 629 (8013): 851–860. Bibcode:2024Natur.629..851S. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1 . PMC   11111414 . PMID   38560995.
  5. 1 2 Prum, R.O. et al. (2015) A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526, 569–573.
  6. 1 2 Houde, Peter; Braun, Edward L.; Narula, Nitish; Minjares, Uriel; Mirarab, Siavash (2019). "Phylogenetic Signal of Indels and the Neoavian Radiation". Diversity. 11 (7): 108. Bibcode:2019Diver..11..108H. doi: 10.3390/d11070108 . ISSN   1424-2818.
  7. 1 2 Wu, S.; Rheindt, F.E.; Zhang, J.; Wang, J.; Zhang, L.; Quan, C.; Zhiheng, L.; Wang, M.; Wu, F.; Qu, Y; Edwards, S.V.; Zhou, Z.; Liu, L. (2024). "Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (8): e2319696121. Bibcode:2024PNAS..12119696W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2319696121 . PMC   10895254 . PMID   38346181.
  8. ↑ Kuhl, H.; Frankl-Vilches, C.; Bakker, A.; Mayr, G.; Nikolaus, G.; Boerno, S.T.; Klages, S.; Timmermann, B.; Gahr, M. (2021). "An unbiased molecular approach using 3′-UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (1): 108–127. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa191 . hdl: 21.11116/0000-0007-B72A-C . PMC   7783168 . PMID   32781465.
Taxon identifiers
Afroaves
  • Wikidata: Q15718604
  • Wikispecies: Afroaves
  • EoL: 56951255
  • Paleobiology Database: 479354


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