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Piciformes

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Piciformes
Temporal range: Early Eocene to present
Red-crowned woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus rubricapillus) female.jpg
Red-crowned woodpecker
Melanerpes rubricapillus rubricapillus
female, Tobago
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Picodynastornithes
Order: Piciformes
Meyer & Wolf, 1810
Suborders and families

For prehistoric taxa, see text

Synonyms

Galbuliformes Fürbringer, 1888

Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes /ˈpɪsɪfɔːrmiːz/, the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of which the Picidae make up about half.

In general, the Piciformes are insectivorous, although the barbets and toucans mostly eat fruit and the honeyguides are unique among birds in being able to digest beeswax (although insects make up the bulk of their diet). Nearly all Piciformes have parrot-like zygodactyl feet—two toes forward and two back, an arrangement that has obvious advantages for birds that spend much of their time on tree trunks. An exception are a few species of three-toed woodpeckers. The jacamars aside, Piciformes do not have down feathers at any age, only true feathers. They range in size from the rufous piculet at 8 centimetres in length, and weighing 7 grams, to the toco toucan, at 63 centimetres long, and weighing 680 grams.[1] All nest in cavities and have altricial young.

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Family (biology)

Family (biology)

Family is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family".

Bird

Bird

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m common ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming.

Order (biology)

Order (biology)

Order is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. An immediately higher rank, superorder, is sometimes added directly above order, with suborder directly beneath order. An order can also be defined as a group of related families.

Species

Species

In biology, a species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour, or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined.

Toucan

Toucan

Toucans are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and over forty different species.

Honeyguide

Honeyguide

Honeyguides are near passerine birds in the order Piciformes. They are also known as indicator birds, or honey birds, although the latter term is also used more narrowly to refer to species of the genus Prodotiscus. They have an Old World tropical distribution, with the greatest number of species in Africa and two in Asia. These birds are best known for their interaction with humans. Honeyguides are noted and named for one or two species that will deliberately lead humans directly to bee colonies, so that they can feast on the grubs and beeswax that are left behind.

Beeswax

Beeswax

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive workers collect and use it to form cells for honey storage and larval and pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.

Parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines, are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes, found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoidea, the Cacatuoidea (cockatoos), and the Strigopoidea. One-third of all parrot species are threatened by extinction, with higher aggregate extinction risk than any other comparable bird group. Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere, as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia.

Jacamar

Jacamar

The jacamars are a family, Galbulidae, of near passerine birds from tropical South and Central America, extending up to Mexico. The family contains five genera and 18 species. The family is closely related to the puffbirds, another Neotropical family, and the two families are often separated into their own order, Galbuliformes, separate from the Piciformes. They are principally birds of low-altitude woodlands and forests, and particularly of forest edge and canopy.

Down feather

Down feather

The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator and padding, used in goods such as jackets, bedding, pillows and sleeping bags. The discovery of feathers trapped in ancient amber suggests that some species of non-avian dinosaur likely possessed down-like feathers.

Rufous piculet

Rufous piculet

The rufous piculet is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. This species is one of the world's smallest woodpeckers and is the smallest woodpecker found outside the Americas. In this species the length can range from 8 to 10 cm and the average body mass is around 9.2 g (0.32 oz).

Toco toucan

Toco toucan

The toco toucan, also known as the common toucan or giant toucan, is the largest and probably the best known species in the toucan family. It is found in semi-open habitats throughout a large part of central and eastern South America. It is a common attraction in zoos.

Systematics

The Galbulidae and Bucconidae are often separated into a distinct Galbuliformes order. Analysis of nuclear genes confirms that they form a lineage of their own, but suggests that they are better treated as a suborder. The other families form another monophyletic group of suborder rank, but the barbets were determined to be paraphyletic with regard to the toucans and hence, the formerly all-encompassing Capitonidae have been split up.[2] The woodpeckers and honeyguides are each other's closest relatives.[3] According to some researchers,[4] the entire order Piciformes should be included as a subgroup in Coraciiformes.

Evolution

Primozygodactylus, a zygodactylid bird
Primozygodactylus, a zygodactylid bird

Reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the Piciformes has been hampered by poor understanding of the evolution of the zygodactyl foot. A number of prehistoric families and genera, from the Early Eocene Neanis and Hassiavis, the Zygodactylidae/Primoscenidae, Gracilitarsidae, Sylphornithidae, and "Homalopus",[5] to the Miocene "Picus" gaudryi and the Pliocene Bathoceleus are sometimes tentatively assigned to this order.[6] There are some extinct ancestral Piciformes known from fossils which have been difficult to place but at least in part probably belong to the Pici. The modern families are known to exist since the mid-late Oligocene to early Miocene; consequently, the older forms appear to be more basal. A large part of Piciform evolution seems to have occurred in Europe where only Picidae occur today; perhaps even some now exclusively Neotropical families have their origin in the Old World.

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Zygodactylidae

Zygodactylidae

Zygodactylidae is a family of extinct birds found in Europe and North America from the Eocene epoch to the Middle Miocene. First named in 1971, based on fragmentary remains of two species from Germany, a more complete description of the birds became possible in 2008 when a number of other, better-preserved fossil species were assigned to the family based on a number of shared characteristics.

Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς and καινός and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.

Neanis

Neanis

Neanis is an extinct genus of bird probably related to woodpeckers and toucans. It contains at least one species, N. schucherti; N. kistneri resembles this, but it probably belongs to a distinct genus and may not be closely related. Both are known from the Late Wasatchian stratum of the Early Eocene Green River Formation of the Western-Central USA. "N." kistneri is known from one fairly complete, but not very well preserved skeleton, whereas of N. schucherti even less material was found.

Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.

Pliocene

Pliocene

The Pliocene is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian Stage, which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene.

Fossil

Fossil

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from the Ancient Greek ὀλίγος and καινός, and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period.

Europe

Europe

Europe is a continent comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.

Old World

Old World

The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe c. 1596, after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by their inhabitants as comprising the entire world, with the "New World", a term for the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas.

Classification

Piciformes 

Galbulidae– Jacamars

Bucconidae – Puff birds

Indicatoridae – Honeyguides

Picidae – Woodpeckers

Megalaimidae – Asian barbets

Lybiidae – African barbets

Semnornithidae – Toucan barbets

Capitonidae – New World barbets

Ramphastidae – Toucans

Relationships between the families based on a phylogenetic study by Claramunt and Cracraft published in 2015.[7]

Order: PICIFORMES

  • Unassigned (all fossil)
    • Piciformes gen. et sp. indet. IRScNB Av 65 (Early Oligocene of Boutersem, Belgium)
    • Piciformes gen. et sp. indet. SMF Av 429 (Late Oligocene of Herrlingen, Germany)
  • Suborder Galbuli
    • Family Galbulidae – jacamars (18 species)
    • Family Bucconidae – puffbirds, nunbirds and nunlets (some 38 species)
  • Suborder Pici

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Fossil

Fossil

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Galbuli

Galbuli

Galbuli is one of the two suborders of the order Piciformes and includes two families Bucconidae (puffbirds) and Galbulidae (jacamars). The other suborder Pici is a global group of piciforms, puffbirds and jacamars are only found in the Neotropics.

Pici (taxon)

Pici (taxon)

Pici is one of the two suborders of the order Piciformes and includes two infraorders Ramphastides and Picides. Members of this suborder are often called "true piciforms", as the jacamars of Galbulidae and puffbirds of Bucconidae were thought to be not closely related to toucans and woodpeckers, but instead to the order Coraciiformes. However, analysis of nuclear DNA in a 2003 study placed them as a sister group to the rest of the Piciformes, also showing that the groups had developed zygodactyl feet before separating. Per Ericson and colleagues, in analysing genomic DNA, confirmed that puffbirds and jacamars were sister groups and their place in Piciformes.

Rupelramphastoides

Rupelramphastoides

Rupelramphastoides is an extinct piciform from the Lower Oligocene of Central Europe (Germany). Only one species are recorded for genus, Rupelramphastoides knopfi, and it is classified "family incertae sedis", pending discovery of additional specimens.

Picavus

Picavus

Picavus litencicensis is an extinct bird in the order Piciformes. It existed during the Rupelian in what is now the Czech Republic. It was described by Gerald Mayr and Růžena Gregorová in 2012, and is the only species in the family Picavidae.

Ramphastides

Ramphastides

Ramphastides is an infraorder of the order Piciformes that includes toucans and barbets. Formerly, the barbets have been classified in a single family, the Capitonidae. However, this has turned out to be paraphyletic with regard to toucans, which resulted in the Capitonidae being split into several families.

Source: "Piciformes", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 28th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piciformes.

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Further Reading

Passerine

List of birds

Woodpecker

New World barbet

Piculet

Jacamar

Puffbird

Prong-billed barbet

African barbet

Notharchus

Galbula

Pici (taxon)

Ramphastides

Picides

Galbuli
See also
References
  1. ^ Short, Lester L. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 152–157. ISBN 1-85391-186-0.
  2. ^ Lanyon, Scott M.; Hall, John G (April 1994). "Reexamination of Barbet Monophyly Using Mitochondrial-DNA Sequence Data" (PDF). The Auk. 111 (2): 389–397. doi:10.2307/4088602. JSTOR 4088602.
  3. ^ Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G.P. (2003). "Molecular support for a sister group relationship between Pici and Galbulae (Piciformes sensu Wetmore 1960" (PDF). Journal of Avian Biology. 34 (2): 185–197. doi:10.1034/j.1600-048X.2003.03103.x.
  4. ^ Hackett, Shannon J.; Kimball, Rebecca T.; Reddy, Sushma; Bowie, Rauri C. K.; Braun, Edward L.; Braun, Michael J.; Chojnowski, Jena L.; Cox, W. Andrew; Han, Kin-Lan; Harshman, John; Huddleston, Christopher J.; Marks, Ben D.; Miglia, Kathleen J.; Moore, William S.; Sheldon, Frederick H.; Steadman, David W.; Witt, Christopher C.; Yuri, Tamaki (2008). "A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History". Science. 320 (5884): 1763–1768. Bibcode:2008Sci...320.1763H. doi:10.1126/science.1157704. PMID 18583609. S2CID 6472805.
  5. ^ Described in 1870, its name is preoccupied by a subgenus of Cryptocephalus leaf beetles described in 1835.
  6. ^ Cracraft, Joel & Morony, John J. Jr. (1969). "A new Pliocene woodpecker, with comments on the fossil Picidae" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (2400): 1–8.
  7. ^ Claramunt, Santiago; Cracraft, Joel (2015). "A new time tree reveals Earth history's imprint on the evolution of modern birds". Science Advances. 1 (11): e1501005. Bibcode:2015SciA....1E1005C. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501005. PMC 4730849. PMID 26824065.
  8. ^ "CMC 152", a distal carpometacarpus; more similar to extant barbets than to Capitonides: Ballmann, Peter (1969). "Les Oiseaux miocènes de la Grive–Saint–Alban (Isère)" [The Miocene birds of Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère)]. Geobios (in French and English). 2: 157–204. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(69)80005-7.
Further reading
  • Gorman, Gerard (2004): Woodpeckers of Europe: A Study of the European Picidae. Bruce Coleman, UK. ISBN 1-872842-05-4.
External links
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