Notopalaeognathae

Notopalaeognathae Temporal range: Early Cretaceous – Holocene, 120–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Greater Rhea (Rhea americana)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Infraclass:	Palaeognathae
Clade:	Notopalaeognathae Yuri et. al, 2013
Clades
Rheiformes Novaeratitae Tinamiformes †Dinornithiformes

Notopalaeognathae is a clade that contains the order Rheiformes (rheas), the clade Novaeratitae (birds like the kiwi and the emu), the order Tinamiformes (tinamous) and the extinct order Dinornithiformes (the moas).^[2] The exact relationships of this group have only recently been understood, with tinamous and the moas sharing a common ancestor^[3][4][5][6] and the kiwi is more closely related to emus and cassowaries.<ref name = Mitchell2014">Mitchell, K. J.; Llamas, B.; Soubrier, J.; Rawlence, N. J.; Worthy, T. H.; Wood, J.; Lee, M. S. Y.; Cooper, A. (2014-05-23). "Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution". Science 344 (6186): 898–900. doi:10.1126/science.1251981. PMID 24855267.</ref> The extinct elephant birds of Madagascar had recently been identified as closest relative to the kiwi.<ref name = Mitchell2014">Mitchell, K. J.; Llamas, B.; Soubrier, J.; Rawlence, N. J.; Worthy, T. H.; Wood, J.; Lee, M. S. Y.; Cooper, A. (2014-05-23). "Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution". Science 344 (6186): 898–900. doi:10.1126/science.1251981. PMID 24855267.</ref> The rheas are either the basal most branch of notopalaeognaths^[7] or the sister group to Novaeratitae.^[8]

References

1. Van Tuinen M. (2009) Birds (Aves). In The Timetree of Life, Hedges SB, Kumar S (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press; 409–411.
2. Yuri, T. (2013) Parsimony and model-based analyses of indels in avian nuclear genes reveal congruent and incongruent phylogenetic signals. Biology, 2:419–44.
3. Phillips MJ, Gibb GC, Crimp EA, Penny D (January 2010). "Tinamous and moa flock together: mitochondrial genome sequence analysis reveals independent losses of flight among ratites". Systematic Biology 59 (1): 90–107. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp079. PMID 20525622.
4. Allentoft, M. E.; Rawlence, N. J. (2012-01-20). "Moa's Ark or volant ghosts of Gondwana? Insights from nineteen years of ancient DNA research on the extinct moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) of New Zealand". Annals of Anatomy - Anatomischer Anzeiger 194: 36–51. doi:10.1016/j.aanat.2011.04.002.
5. Mitchell, K. J.; Llamas, B.; Soubrier, J.; Rawlence, N. J.; Worthy, T. H.; Wood, J.; Lee, M. S. Y.; Cooper, A. (2014-05-23). "Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution". Science 344 (6186): 898–900. doi:10.1126/science.1251981. PMID 24855267.
6. Baker, A. J.; Haddrath, O.; McPherson, J. D.; Cloutier, A. (2014). "Genomic Support for a Moa-Tinamou Clade and Adaptive Morphological Convergence in Flightless Ratites". Molecular Biology and Evolution. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu153.
7. Hackett, S.J. et al. (2008) A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History. Science, 320, 1763.
8. Yuri, T. (2013) Parsimony and model-based analyses of indels in avian nuclear genes reveal congruent and incongruent phylogenetic signals. Biology, 2:419–44.