Afroaves

Afroaves Temporal range: Paleocene to present
Snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Telluraves
Clade:	Afroaves Ericson, 2012
Subclades
Hieraves Coraciimorphae

Afroaves is a clade of birds, consisting of the kingfishers and kin (Coraciiformes), woodpeckers and kin (Piciformes), hornbills and kin (Bucerotiformes), trogons (Trogoniformes), cuckoo roller (Leptosomiformes), mousebirds (Coliiformes), owls (Strigiformes) and raptors (Accipitriformes).^[1][2] The owls and raptors, which form a sister clade to the rest of the group, are predatory, suggesting the last common ancestor of Afroaves may have been a predatory bird.^[2] This group was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Accipiter nisus, Colius colius, and Picus viridis, but not Passer domesticus".^[3]

Phylogeny

The following cladogram of Afroaves relationships is based on Stiller et al (2024).^[4]

Afroaves	Hieraves Accipitriformes (hawks and relatives) Strigiformes (owls) Coraciimorphae Coliiformes (mousebirds) Cavitaves Leptosomiformes (cuckoo roller) Eucavitaves Trogoniformes (trogons) Picocoraciae Bucerotiformes (hornbills and relatives) Picodynastornithes Coraciiformes Piciformes

Afroaves has not always been recovered as a monophyletic clade in subsequent studies. For instance, Prum et al. (2015) recovered the accipitrimorphs as the sister group to a clade (Eutelluraves) comprising the remaining afroavian orders and Australaves,^[5] while an analysis by Houde et al. (2019) recovered a clade of accipitrimorphs and owls as sister to the remaining landbirds.^[6] Wu et al. (2024) also found recovered and found support the clade of accipitrimorphs and owls (which they have named Hieraves), but found the clade to be sister to Australaves.^[7] Kukl et al. (2020) obtained an identical arrangement to Jarvis et al. (2014) but the position of the Strigiformes was only weakly supported by their data.^[8] Stiller et al. (2024) recovered the Afroaves as a clade but with the Strigiformes as sister to the Accipitrimorphae, rather than sister to the Coraciimorphae as in the Jarvis tree. Stiller et al. (2024) found that the support for their placement of the Strigiformes increased when additional taxa were included in the analysis.^[4]

Afroaves and alternative phylogenetic arrangements

Jarvis et al. (2014)[2]
Telluraves Afroaves Accipitrimorphae Strigiformes Coraciimorphae Australaves

Prum et al. (2015)[5]
Telluraves Accipitriformes Eutelluraves Strigiformes Coraciimorphae Australaves

Houde et al (2019)[6]
Telluraves Accipitrimorphae Strigiformes Coraciimorphae Australaves

Wu et al (2024)[7]
Telluraves Coraciimorphae Hieraves Accipitrimorphae Strigiformes Australaves

Stiller et al (2024)[4]
Telluraves Afroaves Strigiformes Accipitriformes Coraciimorphae Australaves

References

1. Ericson, P.G. (2012). "Evolution of terrestrial birds in three continents: biogeography and parallel radiations" (PDF). Journal of Biogeography. 39 (5): 813–824. Bibcode:2012JBiog..39..813E. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02650.x. S2CID 85599747. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-12. Retrieved 2014-10-09.
2. Jarvis, E. D.; Mirarab, S.; Aberer, A. J.; Li, B.; Houde, P.; Li, C.; Ho, S. Y. W.; Faircloth, B. C.; Nabholz, B.; Howard, J. T.; Suh, A.; Weber, C. C.; Da Fonseca, R. R.; Li, J.; Zhang, F.; Li, H.; Zhou, L.; Narula, N.; Liu, L.; Ganapathy, G.; Boussau, B.; Bayzid, M. S.; Zavidovych, V.; Subramanian, S.; Gabaldon, T.; Capella-Gutierrez, S.; Huerta-Cepas, J.; Rekepalli, B.; Munch, K.; et al. (2014). "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds" (PDF). Science. 346 (6215): 1320–1331. Bibcode:2014Sci...346.1320J. doi:10.1126/science.1253451. hdl:10072/67425. PMC 4405904. PMID 25504713. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
3. Sangster, George; Braun, Edward L.; Johansson, Ulf S.; Kimball, Rebecca T.; Mayr, Gerald; Suh, Alexander (2022-01-01). "Phylogenetic definitions for 25 higher-level clade names of birds" (PDF). Avian Research. 13 100027. Bibcode:2022AvRes..1300027S. doi:10.1016/j.avrs.2022.100027. ISSN 2053-7166.
4. Stiller, J.; et al. (2024). "Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes". Nature. 629 (8013): 851–860. Bibcode:2024Natur.629..851S. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1. PMC 11111414. PMID 38560995.
5. Prum, R.O. et al. (2015) A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526, 569–573.
6. Houde, Peter; Braun, Edward L.; Narula, Nitish; Minjares, Uriel; Mirarab, Siavash (2019). "Phylogenetic Signal of Indels and the Neoavian Radiation". Diversity. 11 (7): 108. Bibcode:2019Diver..11..108H. doi:10.3390/d11070108. ISSN 1424-2818.
7. Wu, S.; Rheindt, F.E.; Zhang, J.; Wang, J.; Zhang, L.; Quan, C.; Zhiheng, L.; Wang, M.; Wu, F.; Qu, Y; Edwards, S.V.; Zhou, Z.; Liu, L. (2024). "Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (8) e2319696121. Bibcode:2024PNAS..12119696W. doi:10.1073/pnas.2319696121. PMC 10895254. PMID 38346181.
8. Kuhl, H.; Frankl-Vilches, C.; Bakker, A.; Mayr, G.; Nikolaus, G.; Boerno, S.T.; Klages, S.; Timmermann, B.; Gahr, M. (2021). "An unbiased molecular approach using 3′-UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (1): 108–127. doi:10.1093/molbev/msaa191. hdl:21.11116/0000-0007-B72A-C. PMC 7783168. PMID 32781465.