Megalaimidae, the Asian barbets, are a family of

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, comprising two genera with 35 species native to the forests of the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

from

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. They were once clubbed with all barbets in the family

Capitonidae The New World barbets are a family, Capitonidae, of 15 birds in the order Piciformes, which inhabit humid forests in Central and South America. They are closely related to the toucans. The New World barbets are plump birds, with short necks and ...

but the Old World species have been found to be distinctive and are considered, along with the

Lybiidae Lybiidae is a family (biology), family of birds also known as the African barbets. There are 44 species ranging from the type genus ''Lybius'' of forest interior to the tinkerbirds (''Pogoniulus'') of forest and scrubland. They are found througho ...

and

Ramphastidae Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and over 40 different species. ...

, as sister groups.

Taxonomy

In the past the species were placed in three genera, ''Caloramphus'', ''Megalaima'' and ''Psilopogon'', but studies show that ''Psilopogon'' to be nested within the clade of ''Megalaima''. Since members of this clade are better treated under a single genus, they have been moved to the genus ''Psilopogon'' which was described and erected earlier than ''Megalaima'' and is therefore chosen on the basis of taxonomic priority principles. Nearly all members of the family are now in the genus ''Psilopogon'', with the exception of those in ''Caloramphus'', which are thought to have genetically diverged from the

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

around 21.32 million years ago. The latter species are distinct enough to warrant placement in a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Caloramphinae. The family name is derived from that of the genus ''Megalaima'' which means ‘large throat’, from the Greek ' (, ‘large, great’) and ' (, ‘throat’). The

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

relationship between the Asian barbets and the eight other families in 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 ...

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, ...

is shown in the cladogram below. The number of species in each family is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill,

Pamela C. Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...

and David Donsker on behalf of the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC).

Classification

Subfamily Megalaiminae Subfamily Caloramphinae

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q935463 Extant Pleistocene first appearances Bird families Taxa named by Edward Blyth