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Aequornithes

Clade of birds

Clade of birds

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  • †Pujatopouli
  • Gaviiformes
  • Feraequornithes Sangster & Mayr, 2021
    • Austrodyptornithes
    • Pelecanimorphae

Aequornithes (, from Latin aequor, expanse of water + Greek ornithes, birds), or core water birds, are defined in the PhyloCode as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Pelecanus onocrotalus and Gavia immer", that is, the last common ancestor of the great white pelican and the common loon, as well as its descendants, extinct and extant.

Aequornithes, as currently understood, includes the clades Gaviiformes (loons), Sphenisciformes (penguins), Procellariiformes (petrels and albatrosses), Ciconiiformes (storks), Suliformes (gannets and cormorants) and Pelecaniformes (pelicans and herons). The monophyly of this grouping is supported by several molecular phylogenetic studies. It does not include several unrelated groups of aquatic birds such as flamingos and grebes (Mirandornithes), shorebirds, gulls, and auks (Charadriiformes), or the Anseriformes (waterfowl). The group first appeared during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, with the earliest known member being Pujatopouli from the Lopez de Bertodano Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctica.

Based on a whole-genome analysis of the bird orders, the kagu and sunbittern (Eurypygiformes) and the three species of tropicbirds (Phaethontiformes) together styled as the Eurypygimorphae are the closest sister group of the Aequornithes, in a clade later named Phaethoquornithes.

Phylogeny

The cladogram below is based on Burleigh, J.G. et al. (2015) and Stiller et al. (2024) with some names after Sangster, G. & Mayr, G. (2021).

The clade Feraequornithes was named by Sangster & Mayr, 2021 to include the Pelecanimorphae and Procellariimorphae to the exclusion of the loons (Gaviiformes). They defined this clade in the PhyloCode as "the least inclusive clade containing Pelecanus onocrotalus and Procellaria aequinoctialis".

References

References

  1. (2025). "Diving in the Maastrichtian of Marambio (Seymour) Island: A new member of the Neoaves in the Cretaceous Antarctic avifauna". Cretaceous Research.
  2. (2022). "Phylogenetic definitions for 25 higher-level clade names of birds". Avian Research.
  3. (2021). "Feraequornithes: a name for the clade formed by Procellariiformes, Sphenisciformes, Ciconiiformes, Suliformes and Pelecaniformes (Aves)". Vertebrate Zoology.
  4. Mayr, Gerald. (2011). "Metaves, Mirandornithes, Strisores and other novelties – a critical review of the higher-level phylogeny of neornithine birds". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research.
  5. (2022-01-01). "Phylogenetic definitions for 25 higher-level clade names of birds". Avian Research.
  6. (27 June 2008). "A phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history". Science.
  7. (2013). "Parsimony and model-based analyses of indels in avian nuclear genes reveal congruent and incongruent phylogenetic signals". Biology.
  8. (December 2013). "Identifying localized biases in large datasets: A case study using the Avian Tree of Life". Mol Phylogenet Evol.
  9. (2015). "Determining the Position of Storks on the Phylogenetic Tree of Waterbirds by Retroposon Insertion Analysis". Genome Biology and Evolution.
  10. (12 December 2014). "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds". Science.
  11. (2022). "Phylogenetic definitions for 25 higher-level clade names of birds". Avian Research.
  12. (March 2015). "Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
  13. Stiller, J., Feng, S., Chowdhury, AA. et al. Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1
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