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Information about Neornithes

Modern birds
Fossil range: Cretaceous - Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Subclass:Neornithes
Gadow, 1893
Superorders


Paleognathae
Neognathae
Modern birds (subclass Neornithes) are the members of class Aves that have survived into recent times and have coexisted with humans. Modern birds are characterised primarily by their toothless beaks, as most prehistoric bird groups possessed teeth.

Many species of modern bird undertake long distance annual migrations, and many more perform shorter more irregular movements. They are primarily socially monogamous, with engagement in extra-pair copulations being common in some species; other species have polygamous or polyandrous breeding systems. Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated and most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching.

Taxonomy

Modern birds are divided into two superorders, the Paleognathae (mostly flightless birds like ostriches), and the wildly diverse Neognathae, containing all other birds. Depending on the taxonomic viewpoint, the number of species cited varies anywhere from 8,800 to 10,200 known living bird species in the world. It is generally agreed that the Neornithes evolved in the Cretaceous Period and that the split between the Galloanseri and the other Neognathae occurred before the K-T extinction event, but there are different opinions about whether the radiation of the remaining neognathes occurred before or after the extinction of the other dinosaurs.[1] This disagreement is in part caused by a divergence in the evidence, with molecular dating suggesting a Cretaceous radiation and fossil evidence supporting a Tertiary radiation. Attempts made to reconcile the molecular and fossil evidence have proved controversial.[1][2]

The classification of modern birds is a contentious issue. Sibley & Ahlquist's Phylogeny and Classification of Birds (1990) is a landmark work on the classification of birds, although frequently debated and constantly revised. A preponderance of evidence seems to suggest that the modern bird orders constitute accurate taxa. However, scientists are not in agreement as to the relationships between the orders; evidence from modern bird anatomy, fossils and DNA have all been brought to bear on the problem but no strong consensus has emerged. More recently, new fossil and molecular evidence is providing an increasingly clear picture of the evolution of modern bird orders. See also: Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy and dinosaur classification.

Classification

This is a list of the taxonomic orders in the subclass Neornithes, or modern birds. The list of birds gives a more detailed summary of these, including families.

Subclass Neornithes
Paleognathae: Neognathae: Note: This is the traditional classification (the so-called Clements order). A radically different classification based on molecular data has been developed (the so-called Sibley-Monroe classification or Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy). This has influenced taxonomic thinking considerably, with the Galloanserae proving well-supported by recent molecular, fossil and anatomical evidence.[1] With increasingly good evidence, it had become possible by 2006 to test the major proposals of the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, with favorable results (see for example Charadriiformes, Gruiformes or Caprimulgiformes).

Phylogeny

Basal divergences of modern birds based on the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.

Neornithes  
Paleognathae 

Struthioniformes


 Tinamiformes


 Neognathae 



Galliformes


 Craciformes





References

1. ^ Ericson PGP, Anderson CL, Britton T, Elzanowski A, Johansson US, Kallersjo M, Ohlson JI, Parsons TJ, Zuccon D, Mayr G (2006)"Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils" Biology Letters 2(4): 543-547
2. ^ Brown J, Payne B, & Mindell D (2006) "Nuclear DNA does not reconcile 'rocks' and 'clocks' in Neoaves: a comment on Ericson et al. Biology Letters 3 1-3

See also

The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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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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Paleognathae
Pycraft, 1900

Orders

Primary Classification
  • Lithornithiformes
  • Dinornithiformes
  • Aepyornithiformes
  • Struthioniformes
  • Rheiformes
  • Casuariiformes
  • Apterygiformes
  • Tinamiformes

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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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A body plan, or body form, is essentially the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry, its number of body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan.
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The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which, in addition to eating, is used for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, courtship, and feeding their young.
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Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists. They are known from subfossil remains and sometimes folk memory, as in the case of Haast's Eagle from New Zealand.
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Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
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Recent discoveries have led biologists to talk about the three varieties of monogamy: social monogamy, sexual monogamy, and genetic monogamy. The distinction between these three are important to the modern understanding of monogamy.
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Polygamy has been a feature of human culture since earliest history. The term polygamy (many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, and sociology.
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This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article.
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NEST is an abbreviation for one of the following:
  • The Nuclear Emergency Support Team, a team "prepared to respond immediately to any type of radiological accident or incident anywhere in the world".

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The word incubate in the context of birds refers to the development of the chick (embryo) within the egg and the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period.
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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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Paleognathae
Pycraft, 1900

Orders

Primary Classification
  • Lithornithiformes
  • Dinornithiformes
  • Aepyornithiformes
  • Struthioniformes
  • Rheiformes
  • Casuariiformes
  • Apterygiformes
  • Tinamiformes

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Struthionidae
Vigors, 1825

Genus: Struthio
Linnaeus, 1758

Species: S.
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Taxonomy, sometimes alpha taxonomy, is the science of finding, describing and categorising organisms, thus giving rise to taxonomic groups or taxa, which may then be named.
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The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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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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Tertiary geological time interval covers roughly the time span between the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs and beginning of the most recent Ice Age, approximately 65 million to 1.8 million years ago.
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Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our understanding of the
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For the journal, see .
A taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a name designating an organism or group of organisms. A taxon is assigned a rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary
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The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990).
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Dinosaur classification began in 1842 when Sir Richard Owen placed Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus in "a distinct tribe or suborder of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria.
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