Phoenicopteriformes is a group of water birds which comprises flamingos and their extinct relatives. Flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) and the closely related

grebe 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. Most grebes f ...

s ( Podicipedidae) are contained in the parent

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 ...

Mirandornithes.

Fossil record

Flamingos and their relatives are well attested in the fossil record, with the first unequivocal member of the Phoenicopteridae, '' Elornis'', known from the late

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

epoch.

Relation to extinct palaelodids

The Palaelodidae – an extinct family of peculiar "swimming flamingos" – are believed to be the closest relatives of the modern flamingos, with the extinct genus '' Juncitarsus'' slightly more primitive than the

which contains flamingos and

s ( Mirandornithes). The foot and wing anatomy of fossil palaelodids suggests that they were surface-swimming birds, rather than grebe-like divers as was proposed in the past. Whether swimmers or divers, that both primitive phoenicopteriforms and their closest relatives, the

s, were highly aquatic, indicates that the entire clade Mirandornithes evolved from aquatic, probably swimming ancestors.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7512165 Bird orders Extant Eocene first appearances Eocene taxonomic orders Oligocene taxonomic orders Miocene taxonomic orders Pliocene taxonomic orders Pleistocene taxonomic orders Holocene taxonomic orders Taxa named by Max Fürbringer