Aquaterraves is a proposed clade of birds, located at the base of the neoavian radiation as sister to Telluraves. The 2024 study that recovered the clade found it to include two strongly supported branches, Aequorlitornithes (including core waterbirds Aequornithes and their relatives) and the newly established Litusilvanae (uniting Charadriiformes, Gruiformes, and Caprimulgimorphae), as well a third branch containing Columbiformes and related taxa that have had an unstable position in previous phylogenomic studies.[1]
| Aquaterraves Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian) – Recent
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| Snowy egret (Egretta thula) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Neoaves |
| Clade: | Aquaterraves Wu et al., 2024 |
| Clades | |
Paleohistory
editThe divergence of Aquaterraves from Telluraves was estimated to have occurred around 87 Mya (million years ago), while the split of Aquaterraves itself was estimated at 81 Mya.[1]
Phylogeny
edit| Neoaves |
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References
edit- ^ a b Wu, S.; Rheindt, F.E.; Zhang, J.; Wang, J.; Zhang, L.; Quan, C.; Zhiheng, L.; Wang, M.; Wu, F.; Qu, Y; Edwards, S.V.; Zhou, Z.; Liu, L. (2024). "Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (8). doi:10.1073/pnas.2319696121. PMC 10895254.
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