Year: 1981
Type: article
Abstract: This paper proposes that avian classifications should express the content of natural groups, that is, taxa that are our best estimates of genealogically related groups of species.The information content of classifications consists only of the hierarchical arrangement of groups within groups, and phylogenetic classifications can store and retrieve such information precisely because genealogical relationships are hierarchical in their logical structure.Present avian classifications, to the extent that they are based on overall (phenetic) similarity or on elevating morphologically distinct taxa to ranks higher than those of their close relatives, do not allow information about natural groups to be stored and retrieved unambiguously.This paper is a first attempt at a phylogenetic classification of the higher taxa of Recent birds.Most currently recognized orders and families are probably monophyletic (with the exception of some family-rank taxa in the Passeriformes), but present classifications do not adequately express the interrelationships of these groups.Twenty orders are here classified into nine Divisions: Division 1 contains the Sphenisciformes, Gaviiformes (including grebes), Procellariiformes, and Pelecaniformes; Division 2 the Palaeognathiformes; Division 3 the Ciconiiformes and Falconiformes (including owls); Division 4 the Anseriformes and Galliformes; Division 5 the Gruiformes, Charadriiformes, and Columbiformes; Division 6 the Psittaciformes; Division 7 the Cuculiformes; Division 8 the Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes; and Division 9 the Piciformes, Coliiformes, Coraciiformes, and Passeriformes.The families of each order are arranged into taxa that seem best to express our current knowledge of their phylogenetic relationships.
DOI: 10.1093/auk/98.4.681
Author: Joël Cracraft
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2920877096