Lari

Lari Temporal range: Late Eocene-Present
Atlantic yellow-legged gull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Suborder:	Lari Sharpe, 1891
Families
Laridae Rynchopidae Sternidae Stercorariidae Alcidae (tentatively placed here) Glareolidae (tentatively placed here)

Greater crested tern displaying in Tasmania.

The suborder Lari is the part of the order Charadriiformes which includes the gulls, terns, skuas and skimmers, with the waders and snipes making up the rest of the order. Following recent research, the auks are now placed into the Lari too; the family Glareolidae (pratincoles and coursers) might constitute a distinct suborder. Sometimes, the buttonquails are also placed here, but the molecular data and fossil record rather suggests them be a quite basal offshoot along with the snipe-like and aberrant waders.^[1]

The larids are generally larger species which take fish from the sea. Several gulls and skuas will also take food items from beaches, or rob smaller species, and some have become adapted to inland environments.

References

1. Paton et al., 2003; Thomas et al., 2004; Paton & Baker, 2006)

Sources

• Paton, Tara A. & Baker, Allan J. (2006): Sequences from 14 mitochondrial genes provide a well-supported phylogeny of the Charadriiform birds congruent with the nuclear RAG-1 tree. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39(3): 657–667. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.01.011 PMID 16531074 (HTML abstract)
• Paton, T. A.; Baker, A. J.; Groth, J. G. & Barrowclough, G. F. (2003): RAG-1 sequences resolve phylogenetic relationships within charadriiform birds. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 268-278. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00098-8 PMID 13678682 (HTML abstract)
• Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny. BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28 PMID 15329156 PDF fulltext Supplementary Material