Eurypygimorphae Explained

Eurypygimorphae or Phaethontimorphae is a clade of birds that contains the orders Phaethontiformes (tropicbirds) and Eurypygiformes (kagu and sunbittern) recovered by genome analysis.^[1] The relationship was first identified in 2013 based on their nuclear genes.^[2] This group was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Phaethon aethereus, Eurypyga helias, and Rhynochetos jubatus".^[3] Historically these birds were placed at different parts of the tree, with tropicbirds in Pelecaniformes and the kagu and sunbittern in Gruiformes. Some genetic analyses have placed the eurypygimorph taxa in the controversial and obsolete clade Metaves, with uncertain placement within that group.^{[4] [5]} More recent molecular studies support their grouping together in Eurypygimorphae, which is usually recovered as the sister taxon to Aequornithes within Ardeae.^{[1] [6] [7]}

Notes and References

1. Jarvis . E.D. . etal . 2014 . Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds . Science . 346 . 6215. 1320–1331 . 10.1126/science.1253451 . 25504713 . 4405904. 2014Sci...346.1320J .
2. Yuri. Tamaki. Kimball. Rebecca. Harshman. John. Parsimony and Model-Based Analyses of Indels in Avian Nuclear Genes Reveal Congruent and Incongruent Phylogenetic Signals. Biology. 2013. 2. 1. 419–444. 10.3390/biology2010419. etal. 24832669. 4009869. free .
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 . Avian Research . 13 . 100027 . 10.1016/j.avrs.2022.100027 . 2053-7166. free . 2022AvRes..1300027S .
4. Ericson. P. G.P. Anderson. C. L. Britton. T.. Elzanowski. A.. Johansson. U. S. Kallersjo. M.. Ohlson. J. I. Parsons. T. J. Zuccon. D.. Mayr. G.. Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils. Biology Letters. 2006. 2. 4. 543–547. 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0523. 17148284. 1834003.
5. Hackett. S. J.. Kimball. R. T.. Reddy. S.. A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History. Science. 2008. 320. 5884. 1763–1768. 10.1126/science.1157704. 18583609. 2008Sci...320.1763H. 6472805. etal.
6. Prum, R.O. et al. (2015) A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526, 569–573.
7. Suh. Alexander. The phylogenomic forest of bird trees contains a hard polytomy at the root of Neoaves. Zoologica Scripta. 45. 2016. 50–62. 0300-3256. 10.1111/zsc.12213. free.