Columbea is a
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 ...
suggested by genome analysis that contains
Columbiformes (pigeons and doves),
Pteroclidae (sandgrouse),
Mesitornithidae (mesites) and
Mirandornithes (flamingos and grebes).
Until their recent placement as the sister taxon to
Passerea, in the last decade various genetic analysis found them to be in the obsolete clade
Metaves.
References
Neognathae
Tetrapod unranked clades
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