The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s including the

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

s, the

bee-eater The bee-eaters are a group of non-passerine birds in the family Meropidae, containing three genera and thirty species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by ...

s, the rollers, the motmots, and the

todies The todies are a family, Todidae, of tiny Caribbean birds in the order Coraciiformes, which also includes the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers. The family has one living genus, '' Todus'', and one genus known from the fossil record, '' Palaeot ...

. They generally have

syndactyly Syndactyly is a condition wherein two or more digits are fused together. It occurs normally in some mammals, such as the siamang and diprotodontia, but is an unusual condition in humans. The term is from Greek σύν, ''syn'' 'together' and δά� ...

, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing. The members of this order are linked by their “slamming” behaviour, thrashing their prey onto surfaces to disarm or incapacitate them. This is largely an Old World order, with the representation in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

limited to the dozen or so species of

and motmots, and a mere handful of the more than a hundred species of kingfishers. The name Coraciiformes means " raven-like". Specifically, it comes from the

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of t ...

"corax", meaning "raven" and Latin "forma", meaning "form", which is the standard ending for bird orders.

Systematics

This order has been seen to be something of a mixed assortment, and the Coraciiformes may be considered as including only the rollers. All the other families would then be considered to represent lineages of birds distantly related to Coraciiformes. This seems to be oversplitting, as most Coraciiformes indeed form a reasonably robust clade. Analysis of

nDNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. I ...

c-myc ''Myc'' is a family of regulator genes and proto-oncogenes that code for transcription factors. The ''Myc'' family consists of three related human genes: ''c-myc'' ( MYC), ''l-myc'' ( MYCL), and ''n-myc'' ( MYCN). ''c-myc'' (also sometimes re ...

'' and RAG-1 exon as well as

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...

myoglobin intron 2

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...

data demonstrates that the Coraciiformes can be divided into a basal group that is not too distantly related to the

Piciformes Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes , the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of ...

, and a derived suborder containing mainly kingfishers (Johansson & Ericson, 2003). The

cuckoo roller The cuckoo-roller or courol (''Leptosomus discolor'')del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (2001) is the only bird in the family Leptosomidae , which was previously often placed in the order Coraciiformes but is now placed in its own order Lept ...

's true affinities appear to lie elsewhere. The

trogons The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...

and hornbills are either very basal lineages, or might be considered distinct own orders; the latter are apparently slightly closer to the rollers than the former. The entire group (possibly excluding the cuckoo roller) and the Piciformes are closely related to the

Passeriformes A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

(Johansson & Ericson 2003; see also

near passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mor ...

). Several extinct coraciiform families are only known from Paleogene

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. They probably belong to the basal group and are sometimes difficult to assign because they were even closer still to the Piciformes (''see also'' ''

Neanis ''Neanis'' is an extinct genus of bird probably related to woodpeckers and toucans. It contains at least one species, ''N. schucherti''; ''N. kistneri'' resembles this, but it probably belongs to a distinct genus and may not be closely related. B ...

''). In addition, there are some prehistoric genera which are likewise difficult to place into a family. At least the Eocoraciidae are very basal, but the Late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

(some 35 mya) Geranopteridae form a superfamily Coracioidea with the extant rollers and ground-rollers already (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000). A few prehistoric

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

of the present-day families have been described; see the family articles for details.

Taxonomic sequence

Unresolved * Genus '' Quasisyndactylus'' (

; Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany) - alcediniform, basal? * Genus '' Cryptornis'' (

; Late Eocene of France) – bucerotid? geranopterid? * Family Primobucconidae (

), including ''

Primobucco ''Primobucco'' is an extinct genus of bird placed in its own family, Primobucconidae. The type species, ''Primobucco mcgrewi'', lived during the Lower Eocene of North America. It was initially described by American paleo-ornithologist Pierce ...

'' and '' Septencoracias'' * Coraciiformes gen. et spp. indet. PQ 1216, QU 15640 (

; Late Eocene of Quercy, France: Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000) * Genus '' Protornis'' (

: Oligocene of Switzerland) – basal to motmotids and meropids? A recent study suggest that the following families may belong to a separate order called

Bucerotiformes Bucerotiformes is an order of birds that contains the hornbills, ground hornbills, hoopoes and wood hoopoes. These birds were previously classified as members of Coraciiformes. The clade is distributed in Africa, Asia, Europe and Melanesia. ...

. The results still in dispute though. * Family Bucorvidae (ground hornbills) * Family

Bucerotidae Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandibl ...

(hornbills) * Family

Upupidae Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single ...

(hoopoe) * Family Phoeniculidae (woodhoopoes) The Leptosomidae (cuckoo roller) probably do not belong here. The

trogon The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...

s are sometimes placed here as a family Trogonidae. The Late Eocene Palaeospizidae are sometimes also placed in the Coraciiformes, as are the Early to Middle Eocene Primobucconidae and the Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene Sylphornithidae. The Primobucconidae at least indeed seem to belong here. Basal group * Family Eocoraciidae (

; Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany) * Family Geranopteridae (

; Late Eocene of Quercy, France – Early Miocene of Czech Republic) - includes ''"Nupharanassa" bohemica'' * Family

Coraciidae Coraciidae is a family of Old World birds, which is known as rollers because of the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights. Rollers resemble crows in size and build, and share the colourful appeara ...

(rollers) * Family

Brachypteraciidae The ground rollers are a small family of non-migratory near-passerine birds restricted to Madagascar. They are related to the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers. They most resemble the latter group, and are sometimes considered a sub-family of ...

(ground-rollers) * Family Meropidae (bee-eaters) Suborder Alcedines * Family Todidae (todies) * Family Momotidae (motmots) * Family Alcedinidae (kingfishers)

References

*Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G. P. (2003): Molecular support for a sister group relationship between Pici and Galbulae (Piciformes sensu Wetmore 1960). '' J. Avian Biol.'' 34(2): 185–197. PDF fulltext
*Mayr, Gerald & Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (2000): Rollers (Aves: Coraciiformes. s.s.) from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Germany) and the Upper Eocene of the Quercy (France). '' J. Vertebr. Paleontol.'' 20(3): 533–546. DOI:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020 533:RACSSF.0.CO;2PDF fulltext
*Terres, John K. (1980) The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds.

External links

Order Coraciiformes - Biodiversity Overview: Untamed Science

Tree of Life: Coraciiformes
{{Authority control Extant Eocene first appearances Bird orders Eocene taxonomic orders Oligocene taxonomic orders Miocene taxonomic orders Pliocene taxonomic orders Pleistocene taxonomic orders Holocene taxonomic orders

Systematics

Taxonomic sequence

See also

References

External links