Phasianoidea is a superfamily of birds of the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

of the

Galliformes Galliformes is an order (biology), order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkey (bird), turkeys, chickens, Old World quail, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems ...

Taxonomy

Description

The superfamily was described in 1825 by the Irish

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Ireland, Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow, in 1 ...

.Vigors, N. A. (1825): "Observations on the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of Birds". ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London'' 14 (3): 395–451
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Etymology

The name Phasianoidea is formed by the union of the elements of scientific Latin ''Phasian-'' and ''-oidea''. The first is the genitive root of the name of its

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

, ''

Phasianus The "typical" pheasant genus ''Phasianus'' in the family Phasianidae consists of two species. The genus name is Latin for pheasant. Taxonomy The genus ''Phasianus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edi ...

''; and the second is the ending ''-oidea'', neutral plural of ''-oideus'', derived from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

εἴδος ''eidos'', 'aspect', 'appearance', 'form', with the union vowel ''-o-'', used in the formation of numerous names of orders and superfamilies of animals. Literally: 'those who look like pheasants'.

References

Bibliography

* del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (1994): "New World Vultures to Guineafowl". In ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

''. Volume 2. Barcelona:

Lynx Edicions Lynx Nature Books, based in Barcelona, is a publishing company specializing in ornithology and natural history. The company was founded in 1989. It was formerly named Lynx Edicions. History Lynx Nature Books was founded as Lynx Edicions in Barce ...

. .

External links

Phasianoidea
in ADW. {{Taxonbar, from=Q22933805 Galliformes Bird superfamilies