Oryctos
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Accès privé :
| volume 7, 2008 |
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Gerald Mayr, The higher-level phylogeny of birds - when morphology, molecules,and fossils coincide. Oryctos 7, 67-74.
Although the higher-level relationships of modern birds are still poorly resolved, there some clades result from cladistic analyses of both morphological and molecular data, and are in further agreement with the mosaic character distribution in Paleogene fossil taxa. Examples are sister group relationships between Galliformes (landfowl) and Anseriformes (waterfowl), Phoenicopteriformes (flamingos) and Podicipediformes (grebes), Aegothelidae (owlet-nightjars) and Apodiformes, and jacamars/puffbirds (Galbulae) and Pici (woodpeckers and allies). Recent molecular studies further support a position of Turnicidae (buttonquails) within Charadriiformes (shorebirds), which is in concordance with the mosaic distribution of turnicid and charadriiform characters in the early Oligocene taxon Turnipax. Most of the above clades have initially been suggested from studies of morphological data, and despite recent progress in molecular analyses phylogenies based on morphological characters are still needed to set fossil taxa into a phylogenetic context.
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