The most basic guide to Neornithes, aka Modern Birds
Everything is as simplified as possible. Based on Prum et al., 2015. Note some things:
1) All names here are of the groups used in Dinosaur March Madness (as a guide), and the relevant parent clades
2) According to Prum’s analysis, Camprimulgiformes are actually paraphyletic with regards to Apodiformes, i.e., Apodiformes should really be within Caprimulgiformes, but since this is a relatively controversial conclusion, I’ve left them separate for now
3) Aequorlitornithes is a ridiculously long clade name.
4) The classic clade of Afroaves was not, in fact, recovered; rather, Accipitrimorphs were found as being less closely related to Australaves than Strigiformes and Coraciimorphs were. Traditionally, Telluraves was divided directly in half: Afroaves (Accipitrimorphs, Strigiformes, and Coraciimorphs) and Australaves (Cariamiformes, Falconfiromes, Parrots and Passerines). Here, Accipitrimorphs falls outside of [Strigiformes + Coraciimorphs] + Australaves.
5) This doesn’t really take into account fossil taxa or morphological data.
6) Bird phylogeny is in flux. I doubtlessly will make more of these.
Source: Prum, R. O., J. S. Berv, A. Dornburg, D. J. Field, J. P. Townsend, E. M. Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon. 2015. A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526: 569 - 573.
