| Hieraves Temporal range: Paleocene (Danian) to recent Possible Late Cretaceous origin based on molecular clock [1] | |
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| Barn owl Tyto alba | |
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| Common buzzard Buteo buteo | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Telluraves |
| Clade: | Hieraves Wu et al., 2024 |
| Clades | |
Hieraves is a clade of telluravian birds named by Wu et al. (2024) that includes the orders Strigiformes (owls) and Accipitriformes (hawks and their relatives). [1] The Cathartidae (New World vultures) are usually included in Accipitriformes, [2] but some authors treat them as a third order Cathartiformes in the Hieraves.[ citation needed ] In the past, either owls, New World vultures, and hawks were found to be basal outgroups with respect to Coraciimorphae inside Afroaves, [3] [4] or Accipitriformes and Cathartiformes were recovered as a basal clade in respect to the rest of the members of Telluraves. [5] Houde et al. (2019) found support for Hieraves (then unnamed), but they were found to be the sister group to Coraciimorphae and Australaves. [6] The analysis of Wu et al. (2024) has found Hieraves to be the sister clade to Australaves. [1] Stiller et al. (2024) found Hieraves to be basal to Afroaves. [7]