Afroaves
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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). 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. This group was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Accipiter ni
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- Phylogeny
- References
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). 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. 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".
==Phylogeny==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Afroaves” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.