Order: Struthioniformes
Description
Large, flightless birds from Africa without a keel on the sternum.
Taxonomy
Struthioniformes is an order in the class Aves.
Rheiformes, Casuariiformes, and Apterygiformes have been included in this order.
A recent study proposed that the former treatment is wrong2: Instead, the tinamous should are now inserted into the middle of the groups included here with the ostriches as the basal group. That leads to a conclusion that either the tinamous regained the ability for flight from a flightless ancestor, or the ability to fly was lost independently in two or more lineages; the authors argue that the second interpretation is by far the most likely. Tinamous together with flightless birds have for a long time been seen as one fundamental group of birds, Palaeograthae; Neognathae contains the remainder of the living birds.
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References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Harshman et al. 2008. Phylogenomic evidence for multiple losses of flight in ratite birds. PNAS 105:13462-13467
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Struthioniformes. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 1 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Struthioniformes
