Category
page 1Galloanserae
Galloanserae

Asteriornis
Asteriornis ("Asteria's bird") is an extinct genus of bird from the Late Cretaceous of Belgium which is known from a single species, Asteriornis maastrichtensis. It was a small, long-legged bird that lived near the coastline and co-existed with more "primitive" types of birds such as Ichthyornis. Asteriornis is one of the oldest-known birds irrefutably belonging to the group Neornithes, which encompasses all modern birds, and is possibly closely related to birds of the extant superorder Galloanserae such as chickens and ducks. It possesses characteristics of both galliformes (chicken-like bird
Pangalliformes
Pangalliformes is the scientific name of a provisional clade of birds within the group Galloanserae. It is defined as all birds more closely related to chickens than to ducks, and includes all modern chickens, turkeys, pheasants, and megapodes, as well as extinct species that do not fall within the crown group Galliformes.
Sylviornithidae
Sylviornithidae is an extinct family of flightless birds, known from subfossil bones found in Holocene aged deposits on the Melanesian islands of New Caledonia and Fiji. For many years it was considered a monotypic family consisting of the New Calendonia Sylviornis alone, but recent studies show that the Fijian Megavitiornis was part of this clade as well. Long considered to have galliform affinities, a 2016 study suggested that they were outside the Galliformes crown group, while a 2024 study suggested that they were members of the Galliformes crown group as more closely related to Phasianoid