Aquaterraves is a proposed

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, located at the base of the

neoavian Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern birds (Neornithes or Aves) with the exception of Palaeognathae (ratites and kin) and Galloanserae (ducks, chickens and kin). This group is defined in the ''PhyloCode'' by George Sangster and colleag ...

radiation as sister to

Telluraves Telluraves (also called land birds or core landbirds) is a recently defined clade of birds defined by their arboreality. Based on most recent genetic studies, the clade unites a variety of bird groups, including the australavians (passerines, ...

. The 2024 study that recovered the clade found it to include two strongly supported branches,

Aequorlitornithes Aequorlitornithes is a clade of waterbirds recovered in a comprehensive genomic systematic study using nearly 200 species in 2015. It contains the clades Charadriiformes (waders and shorebirds), Mirandornithes (flamingos and grebes) and Phaethoq ...

(including core waterbirds

Aequornithes Aequornithes (, from Latin ''aequor'', expanse of water + Greek ''ornithes'', birds), or core water birds, are defined in the ''PhyloCode'' as "the least inclusive crown clade containing '' Pelecanus onocrotalus'' and '' Gavia immer''", that is, ...

and their relatives) and the newly established

Litusilvanae Litusilvanae is a proposed clade of birds, position as the sister clade to Aequorlitornithes. This clade comprises Gruimorphae (orders Charadriiformes and Gruiformes) and Strisores (the order Caprimulgiformes and the clade Vanescaves Vanescave ...

(uniting

Charadriiformes Charadriiformes (, from '' Charadrius'', the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water ...

Gruiformes The Gruiformes ( ) are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like". Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that ...

, and

Caprimulgimorphae Strisores ( ), sometimes called nightbirds, is a clade of birds that includes the living families and orders Caprimulgidae (nightjars, nighthawks and allies), Nyctibiidae (potoos), Steatornithidae (oilbirds), Podargidae (frogmouths), Apodiform ...

), as well a third branch containing

Columbiformes Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

and related taxa that have had an unstable position in previous phylogenomic studies.

Paleohistory

The divergence of Aquaterraves from Telluraves was estimated to have occurred around 87 Mya (

million years ago Million years ago, abbreviated as Mya, Myr (megayear) or Ma (megaannum), is a unit of time equal to (i.e. years), or approximately 31.6 teraseconds. Usage Myr is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used w ...

), while the split of Aquaterraves itself was estimated at 81 Mya.

Phylogeny

References

Neognathae {{bird-stub