Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern

birds 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 ...

(Neornithes or Aves) with the exception of

Paleognathae Palaeognathae (; ) is a infraclass of birds, called paleognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. It is one of the two extant infraclasses of birds, the other being Neognathae, both of which form Neornithes. Palaeognathae cont ...

(ratites and kin) and Galloanserae (ducks, chickens and kin). Almost 95% of the roughly 10,000 known species of extant birds belong to the Neoaves. The early diversification of the various neoavian groups occurred very rapidly around the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million y ...

, and attempts to resolve their relationships with each other have resulted initially in much controversy.

Phylogeny

The early diversification of the various neoavian groups occurred very rapidly around the

. As a result of the rapid radiation, attempts to resolve their relationships have produced conflicting results, some quite controversial, especially in the earlier studies. Nevertheless, some recent large phylogenomic studies of Neoaves have led to much progress on defining orders and supraordinal groups within Neoaves. Still, the studies have failed to produce to a consensus on an overall high order topology of these groups. A genomic study of 48 taxa by Jarvis ''et al''. (2014) divided Neoaves into two main clades,

Columbea Columbea is a clade suggested by genome analysis that contains Columbiformes (pigeons and doves), Pteroclidae (sandgrouse), Mesitornithidae (mesites) and Mirandornithes Mirandornithes () is a clade that consists of flamingos and grebes. Man ...

and Passerea, but an analysis of 198 taxa by Prum ''et al''. (2015) recovered different groupings for the earliest split in Neoaves. A reanalysis with an extended dataset by Reddy ''et al''. (2017) suggested this was due to the type of sequence data, with coding sequences favouring the Prum topology. The disagreement on topology even with large phylogenomic studies led Suh (2016) to propose a hard polytomy of nine clades as the base of Neoaves. An analysis by Houde ''et al''. (2019) recovered Columbea and a reduced hard polytomy of six clades within Passerea. Despite other disagreements, these studies do agree on a number of supraorderal groups, which Reddy ''et al''. (2017) dubbed the "magnificent seven", which together with three "orphaned orders" make up Neoaves. Significantly, they both include a large waterbird clade ( Aequornithes) and a large landbird clade ( Telluraves). The groups defined by Reddy ''et al''. (2017) are as follows: * The "magnificent seven" supraordinal clades: # Telluraves (landbirds) # Aequornithes (waterbirds) # Eurypygimorphae ( sunbittern, kagu and tropicbirds) # Otidimorphae (

turaco The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae ( "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as loeries. They are semi-zygodactylous: the fourth ( ...

s, bustards and cuckoos) # Strisores ( nightjars,

swifts Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

hummingbirds Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are ...

and allies) # Columbimorphae (

mesite The mesites (Mesitornithidae) are a family of birds that are part of a clade (Columbimorphae) that include Columbiformes and Pterocliformes. They are smallish flightless or near flightless birds endemic to Madagascar. They are the only family wit ...

sandgrouse Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclidae , a family of sixteen species of bird, members of the order Pterocliformes . They are traditionally placed in two genera. The two central Asian species are classified as ''Syrrhaptes'' and the other ...

and pigeons) #

Mirandornithes Mirandornithes () is a clade that consists of flamingos and grebes. Many scholars use the term Phoenicopterimorphae for the superorder containing flamingoes and grebes. Determining the relationships of both groups has been problematic. Flamingos ...

( flamingos and

grebes Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order (biology), order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in sea, marine habitats during Bird migration, migration and winter. Some flightless ...

) * The three orphaned orders: ** Opisthocomiformes (

hoatzin The hoatzin ( ) or hoactzin ( ), (''Opisthocomus hoazin''), is the only species in the order Opisthocomiformes. It is a species of tropical bird found in swamps, riparian forests, and mangroves of the Amazon and the Orinoco basins in South ...

) ** Gruiformes (

crane Crane or cranes may refer to: Common meanings * Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird * Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting ** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads People and fictional characters * Crane (surname) ...

s and rails) **

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 ...

( shorebirds,

gulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...

and alcids)  

The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

illustrates the proposed relationships between all neoavian bird clades. This consensus phylogeny of birds is based on phylogenomic data, reflecting a recent phylogenomic supertree analysisKimball, R.T.; Oliveros, C.H.; Wang, N.; White, N.D.; Barker, F.K.; Field, D.J.; Ksepka, D.T.; Chesser, R.T.; Moyle, R.G.; & Braun, M.J. (2019
A phylogenomic supertree of birds
''Diversity'' 2019, 11, 109. and modified after two more recent phylogenomic studies.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2330918 Neognathae Bird superorders Extant Campanian first appearances