Coraciiformes

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Coraciiformes

The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful near passerine

Near passerine

Near passerine or higher land-bird assemblage are terms often given to arboreal birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines due to ecological similarities; the group corresponds to some extent with the Anomalogonatae of Garrod ....
bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s including the kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfishers are small bright colored birds of the three families Alcedinidae , Halcyonidae , and Cerylidae . There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher....
s, the Hoopoe

Hoopoe

The Hoopoe , Upupa epops, is a colourful bird that is found across Afro-Eurasia, notable for its distinctive 'crown' of feathers. It is the only species in the family Upupidae....
, the bee-eater

Bee-eater

The bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa but others occur in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea....
s, the roller

Roller

The rollers are an Old World family of near passerine birds, related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters. The group gets its name from the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights....
s, and the hornbill

Hornbill

Hornbills are a family of bird found in tropical and sub-tropical Africa and Asia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly-coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandible....
s. They generally have syndactyly

Syndactyly

Syndactyly is a condition where two or more digits are fused together. It occurs normally in some mammals, such as the siamang but is an unusual condition in humans....
, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing.

This is largely an Old World

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century....
order

Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
, with the representation in the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
limited to the dozen or so species of todies

Tody

The todies are a family , Todidae, of Caribbean birds in the order Coraciiformes, which also includes the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers....
and motmot

Motmot

The motmots or Momotidae are a family of tropical birds in the near passerine order Coraciiformes, which also includes the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers....
s, and a mere handful of the more than 80 species of kingfishers.

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Encyclopedia

The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful near passerine

Near passerine

Bird

Kingfisher

Kingfishers are small bright colored birds of the three families Alcedinidae , Halcyonidae , and Cerylidae . There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher....
s, the Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Bee-eater

The bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa but others occur in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea....
s, the roller

Roller

Hornbill

Syndactyly

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century....
order

Order (biology)

New World

Tody

The todies are a family , Todidae, of Caribbean birds in the order Coraciiformes, which also includes the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers....
and motmot

Motmot

Puerto Rican Tody

The Puerto Rican Tody is a tody Endemism in birds to the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Despite is scientific name, Todus mexicanus, it is Endemism in birds to Puerto Rico....
(Todus mexicanus) to the 4.5 kg Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri).

The name Coraciiformes means "Raven-like", which is a misnomer. (Ravens are songbirds) Specifically, it comes from the Latin language "Corax", meaning "Raven" and Latin "Forma", meaning "form", which is the standard ending for animal orders. [Terres p 104]

Systematics

This order has been seen to be something of a mixed assortment, and the Coraciiformes may be considered as including only the rollers. All the other families would then be considered to represent lineages of birds distantly related to Coraciiformes. This seems to be oversplitting

Lumpers and splitters

Lumping and splitting refers to a well known problem in any discipline which has to place individual examples into rigorously defined categories....
, as most Coraciiformes indeed form a reasonably robust clade

Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
.

Analysis of nDNA c-myc and RAG-1 exon

Exon

An exon in a gene is a DNA or RNA sequence that is translated into RNA or protein. In contrast, an intron is a DNA sequence in the gene that is not translated....
as well as mtDNA myoglobin

Myoglobin

Myoglobin is a Tertiary structure globular protein of 153 amino acids, containing a heme prosthetic group in the center around which the remaining apoprotein folds....
intron

Intron

Introns, derived from the term "intragenic regions" and also called intervening sequence , are DNA regions in a gene that are not translated into proteins....
2 sequence

DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
data demonstrates that the Coraciiformes can be divided into a basal

Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
group that is not too distantly related to the Piciformes

Piciformes

Six family of largely arboreal birds make up the Order Piciformes, the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives....
, and a derived suborder containing mainly kingfishers (Johansson & Ericson, 2003). The Cuckoo-roller

Cuckoo-roller

The Cuckoo-roller, Leptosomus discolor, is the only bird in the family Leptosomatidae, which is usually considered to be within the order Coraciiformes, which also includes the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers....
's true affinities appear to lie elsewhere. The trogons and hornbills are either very basal lineages, or might be considered distinct own orders; the latter are apparently slightly closer to the rollers than the former. The entire group (possibly excluding the Cuckoo-roller) and the Piciformes are closely related to the Passeriformes (Johansson & Ericson 2003; see also Near passerine

Near passerine

Paleogene

The Paleogene is a geologic period that began 65.5 ? 0.3 and ended 23.03 ? 0.05 million years ago and comprises the first part of the Cenozoic era....
fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
s. They probably belong to the basal group and are sometimes difficult to assign because they were even closer still to the Piciformes (see also Neanis
Neanis

Neanis is an extinct genus of bird probably related to woodpeckers and toucans. It contains at least one species, N. schucherti; N. kistneri resembles this, but it probably belongs to a distinct genus and may not be closely related....
). In addition, there are some prehistoric genera

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
which are likewise difficult to place into a family. At least the Eocoraciidae are very basal, but the Late Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
(some 35 mya

Mya (unit)

In astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case....
) Geranopteridae form a superfamily Coracioidea with the extant rollers and ground-rollers already (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000). A few prehistoric taxa of the present-day families have been described; see the family articles for details.

Taxonomic sequence

Unresolved

Genus Quasisyndactylus (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany) - alcediniform, basal?
Genus Cryptornis (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Late Eocene of France) - bucerotid? geranopterid?
Family Primobucconidae (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
)
Coraciiformes gen. et spp. indet. PQ 1216, QU 15640 (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Late Eocene of Quercy, France: Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000)
Family Bucerotidae (hornbills) - distinct order?

The Leptosomatidae (Cuckoo-roller) probably do not belong here. The trogon

Trogon

The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. They are the only type of animal with a Dactyly#Heterodactyly toe arrangement....
s are sometimes placed here as a family Trogonidae. The Late Eocene Palaeospizidae are sometimes also placed in the Coraciiformes, as are the Early to Middle Eocene Primobucconidae and the Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene Sylphornithidae. The Primobucconidae at least indeed seem to belong here.

Basal group

Family Eocoraciidae (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany)
Family Messelirrisoridae (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Middle Eocene)
Family Geranopteridae (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Late Eocene of Quercy, France - Early Miocene of Czechia) - includes "Nupharanassa" bohemica
Family Coraciidae (rollers)
Family Brachypteraciidae (ground-rollers)
Family Upupidae (Hoopoe)
Family Phoeniculidae (woodhoopoes)
Family Meropidae (bee-eaters)

Suborder Alcedini

Family Todidae (todies)
Family Momotidae (motmots)
Family Alcedinidae (river-kingfishers)
Family Halcyonidae (tree-kingfishers)
Family Cerylidae (water- or belted kingfishers)

Coraciiformes

Systematics

Taxonomic sequence

External links