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KilldeerCheer — The Tree of Maniraptors
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Published: 2014-07-22 14:53:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 1969; Favourites: 35; Downloads: 49
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Description
Originated as a post on Tumblr (killdeercheer.tumblr.com/post/… - figured I'd release a larger version.Basically this is a simplified (somewhat) phylogeny of the Maniraptora, with a special emphasis on the birds. This is to show a 'more-or-less' consensus view of what the relationships are between these species. We're making progress on understanding the evolution of birds, but there's still a lot more to go!
Silhouettes from PhyloPic (phylopic.org) with the appropriate credits from:
Doug Backlund
Paul Baker
Robb T. Brumfield
Huali Chang
Danny Cicchetti
John Conway
Nicholas G. Crawford
Dori
Farelli
Brant C. Faircloth
FunkMonk
Travis C. Glenn
John Gould
Arthur Grosset
Mark Hannaford
J. J. Harrison
Scott Hartman
Michael G. Harvey
Songhai Jia
Enoch Joseph
Michael Keesey
Yoshitsugu Kobayashi
Liftarn
George E. Lodge
Junchang Lu
Matt Martyniuk
John E. McCormack
Darren Naish
Elizabeth Ostman
Lisa M. 'Pixxl'
Hanyong Pu
Gordon E. Robertson
Michael Scroggie
L. Shyamal
Nobu Tamura
Steve Traver
Christopher Watson
Emily Willoughby
Elaine Wilson
Li Xu
Lip Kee Yap
Catherine Yasuda
Jiming Zhang
Related content
Comments: 19
Ravens and crows belong to the Corvidae, which is included in the clade labeled "Passerines".
Don't be sad! They're definitely here, if only to be represented by one member of this massive group of 5,000 or so species! 
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Sigh... it's okay...
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Bustards are outside cuckoos + gruiforms.
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Oh yeah, I definitely need to update this just a little bit. Another new study came out that found the ibis-clade and heron-clade to not be as close as once thought, but rather that ibises and spoonbills nest with pelicans and co. Storks actually nest with herons as well... all very fascinating news!
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Which study was that? "Ciconiiforms" are my favorite birds, but this is news to me.
Where did the shoebill & hamerkop come out?
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Look for Gibb et al. 2013 - one great resource I use is the "Taxonomy in Flux" checklist, which keeps as up to date as possible.
Both the Shoebill and the Hammerkop are sister groups alongside the pelicans as "Pelecaniformes". This is consistent with several independent studies.
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And to be fair, the support for bustards outside cranes+cuckoos as well as cuckoos outside bustards+cranes is still wonky. I might just make it a polytomy.
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A few minor points:
1. "Microraptorines" should probably be "microraptorians".
2. A (very tentative) consensus seems to be emerging for Paraves: dromaeosaurids, troodontids and Archaeopteryx are progressively closer to pygostylians, while scansoriopterygids are either basal paravians or are closer to pygostylians than Archaeopteryx.
3. Several potentially important taxa (Jeholornis, Sapeornis, Rahonavis, Anchiornis, Xiaotingia, Eosinopteryx, Aurornis) are absent.
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Now if only maurading taxonimists stop pruning/grafting this tree... xD
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This is terrific! Great job! I am a little curious about the position of pigeons and doves; I always thought they had been found to be allied with parrots in falcons closer to passerines. Though I suppose being close to mesites makes sense too.
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Yeah, you often see pigeons and parrots alongside each other in many bird books, but they seem to be no more closely related to parrots than any other Neoavian. That's what makes bird phylogenies so interesting - all the unexpected relationships.
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Would be nice to include the credits in the image itself so people don't violate the license by reposting it. Also, the license needs to have the ShareAlike component.
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Done and done! Thanks for keeping this in check, I'd hate to break any rules... especially since I might make more of these
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so dad has told me that this has been very popular on the internet. therefor having many debates.
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Oh wow! This has been my most popular post by-far on Tumblr, but I didn't think people would be debating it so much.
I imagine it's over how the birds should be classified or something along those lines...
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i think so. and i can understand why to. evolution and origin i guess.
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