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Information about Mousebird

Mousebirds

Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Coliiformes
Murie, 1872
Family:Coliidae
Swainson, 1837
Genera


Colius
Urocolius
Fossil taxa, see article text


The mousebirds are a small group of near passerine birds which have no clear affinities to other groups, and are therefore given order status. This group is confined to sub-Saharan Africa, and is the only bird order confined entirely to that continent. This group had a wider range in prehistoric times and apparently evolved in Europe.

They are slender greyish or brown birds with soft, hairlike body feathers and very long thin tails. They are arboreal and scurry through the leaves like rodents in search of berries, fruit and buds. This habit, and their legs, gives rise to the group's English name. They are acrobatic, and can feed upside down. All species have strong claws and reversible outer toes. They also have crests and stubby bills.

Mousebirds are gregarious, again reinforcing the analogy with mice, and are found in bands of about twenty in lightly wooded country.

These birds build twig nests in trees, which are lined with grasses. 2-4 eggs are typically laid, hatching to give quite precocious young which soon leave the nest and acquire flight.

Systematics and evolution

There are comparatively abundant fossils of mousebirds, but it has not been easy to assemble a robust phylogeny. The family is documented to exist from the Early Eocene onwards; by the Late Eocene or earlier, two families are known to have existed, the extant Coliidae and the longer-billed prehistorically extinct Sandcoleidae[1]. The latter were previously a separate order (Houde & Olson, 1992), but eventually it was realized that they had come to group ancestral Coraciiformes, parrots, the actual sandcoleids and forms like Neanis together in a paraphyletic assemblage. Even though the sandcoleids are now assumed to be monophyletic following the removal of these taxa, many forms cannot be conclusively assigned to one family or the other (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré, 1999). The genus Selmes, for example, is probably a coliid, but only distantly related to the modern genera.[2].
  • Order Coliiformes
  • Basal and unassigned forms
  • Genus Chascacocolius (fossil; Late Paleocene ?- Early Eocene) - basal? sandcoleid?
  • Genus Eocolius (fossil; London Clay Early Eocene of Walton-on-the-Naze, England) - sandcoleid or coliid
  • Genus Selmes (fossil; Middle Eocene ?-Late Oligocene of C Europe) - coliid?, possibly synonym of Primocolius
  • "Necrornis" palustris (fossil; Miocene of France) - coliid (genus Colius)?
  • "Picus" archiaci (fossil; Miocene of France) - coliid? genus Limnatornis?
  • "Picus" consobrinus (fossil; Miocene of France) - coliid?
  • Genus Eobucco (fossil) - sandcoleid?
  • Genus Uintornis (fossil) - sandcoleid?
  • Genus Limnatornis (fossil)
  • Family Coliidae

References

  • Houde, Peter & Olson, Storrs L. (1992): A radiation of coly-like birds from the Eocene of North America (Aves: Sandcoleiformes, new order). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 36: 137-160. PDF fulltext
  • Mayr, Gerald & Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (1999): Unusual tarsometatarsus of a mousebird from the Paleogene of France and the relationships of Selmes Peters, 1999. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 24(2): 366-372. PDF fulltext

Footnotes

1. ^ This is not a typographical error, but a Latinization of Sand Coulee River, where some fossils of Sandcoleus where found. In spoken English, "Coliidae" and "-coleidae" sounds identical.
2. ^ It has a peculiar foot morphology not found in any other bird, with very stubby toes. The specific name absurdipes ("absurd foot") refers to this. The genus name is an anagram of "Messel", where it was first found.

External links

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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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William John Swainson FLS, FRS (October 8, 1789 - December 6, 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist.

Swainson was born in Dover Place, St.
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Colius

Colius is a genus of bird in the Coliidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Red-backed Mousebird (Colius castanotus)
  • Speckled Mousebird
  • White-backed Mousebird

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Urocolius
Bonaparte, 1854

species

U. macrourus
U. indicus
Urocolius is a small genus of mousebirds. It consists of two species:

The species are:
  • Blue-naped Mousebird, Urocolius macrourus

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Near passerine or higher land-bird assemblage are terms often given to arboreal birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) due to ecological similarities; the group corresponds to some extent with the Anomalogonatae of
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). The superorder is a rank between class and order. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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Rodentia
Bowdich, 1821

Suborders

Sciuromorpha
Castorimorpha
Myomorpha
Anomaluromorpha
Hystricomorpha
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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MOUSE was founded in 1997 by entrepreneur Andrew Rasiej and Founding Executive Director Sarah Holloway. Along with leaders from the "high tech" community in New York City, MOUSE spearheaded the process of wiring public schools for Internet access in New York City.
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phylogenetics (Greek: phyle = tribe, race and genetikos = relative to birth, from genesis = birth) is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e.g., species, populations).
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The Eocene epoch (55.8 ± 0.2 - 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch.
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The Eocene epoch (55.8 ± 0.2 - 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch.
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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Coraciiformes
Forbes, 1884

Families

Alcedinidae
Brachypteraciidae
Bucerotidae (disputed)
Cerylidae
Coraciidae
Halcyonidae
Meropidae
Momotidae
Phoeniculidae
Todidae
Upupidae
For prehistoric taxa, see text.
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Psittaciformes
Wagler, 1830

Systematics

(but see below)

Family Cacatuidae (cockatoos)
  • Subfamily Microglossinae (Palm Cockatoo)
  • Subfamily Calyptorhynchinae (dark cockatoos)
  • Subfamily Cacatuinae (white cockatoos)

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Neanis
Shufeldt, 1913

Species

Neanis schucherti (type)
"Neanis" kistneri (see text)

Neanis is an extinct genus of bird probably related to woodpeckers and toucans. It contains at least one species, N.
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In phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic (Greek para = near and phyle = race) if the group contains its most recent common ancestor, but does not contain all the descendants of that ancestor.
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
..... Click the link for more information.


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