Neornithes facts for kids

Examples of various avian orders.
Row 1: Red-crested turaco, shoebill, white-tailed tropicbird
Row 2: Steller's sea eagle, grey crowned crane, common peafowl
Row 3: Great hornbill, Anna's hummingbird, Atlantic puffin
Row 4: Southern cassowary, rainbow lorikeet, American flamingo
Row 5: Gentoo penguin, grey heron, blue-footed booby
Row 6: Bar-throated minla, Eurasian eagle-owl, keel-billed toucan

The Neornithes are the modern birds. These are the most recent common ancestor of all living birds and all its descendants. There are about 9 to 10,000 known living bird species in the world.

Taxonomy

Modern birds are divided into two superorders; the Palaeognathae (tinamous and flightless ratites), and the Neognathae, containing all other birds.

It is generally agreed that the Neornithes evolved in the Cretaceous and that the split between the Palaeognathae and Neognathae, and then the split between fowl and the other Neognathae, occurred before the K/T extinction event. The earliest fossil remains of the Neornithes might be about ten million years after the start of the Cretaceous. Gallornis may be the first fossil, but its remains are only a worn partial femur and a fragment of the humerus.

There are different opinions about whether the radiation of the remaining neognathes occurred before or after the extinction of the other dinosaurs. Molecular dating suggests a Cretaceous radiation, while fossil evidence suggest an early Tertiary radiation. Attempts made to bring together the molecular and fossil evidence have proved controversial.

Classification of bird orders

Cladogram of modern bird relationships based on Prum, R.O. et al. (2015) with some clade names after Yuri, T. et al. (2013).

Related Pages

• Bird

Images for kids

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  Archaeopteryx lithographica is often considered the oldest known true bird.

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  Anchiornis huxleyi is an important source of information on the early evolution of birds in the Late Jurassic period.

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  Confuciusornis sanctus, a Cretaceous bird from China that lived 125 million years ago, is the oldest known bird to have a beak.

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  Ichthyornis, which lived 93 million years ago, was the first known prehistoric bird relative preserved with teeth.

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  Didactic model of an avian heart

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  The nictitating membrane as it covers the eye of a masked lapwing

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  The disruptively patterned plumage of the African scops owl allows it to blend in with its surroundings.

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  Red lory preening

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  Restless flycatcher in the downstroke of flapping flight

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  A flock of Canada geese in V formation

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  The routes of satellite-tagged bar-tailed godwits migrating north from New Zealand. This species has the longest known non-stop migration of any species, up to 10,200 km (6,300 mi).

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  The startling display of the sunbittern mimics a large predator.

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  Red-billed queleas, the most numerous species of wild bird, form enormous flocks – sometimes tens of thousands strong.

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  Many birds, like this American flamingo, tuck their head into their back when sleeping.

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  Male golden-backed weavers construct elaborate suspended nests out of grass.

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  Nest of an eastern phoebe that has been parasitised by a brown-headed cowbird

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  A female calliope hummingbird feeding fully grown chicks

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  Reed warbler raising a common cuckoo, a brood parasite

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  Gran Canaria blue chaffinch, an example of a bird highly specialised in its habitat, in this case in the Canarian pine forests

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  Industrial farming of chickens

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  The use of cormorants by Asian fishermen is in steep decline but survives in some areas as a tourist attraction.

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  The 3 of Birds by the Master of the Playing Cards, 15th-century Germany

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  Painted tiles with design of birds from Qajar dynasty

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  The California condor once numbered only 22 birds, but conservation measures have raised that to over 500 today.

See also

In Spanish: Aves para niños