Re: chicken wing-claws

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> Relative? The hoatzin is not a galliform. (And probably not a cuculiform
> either.) Not that anyone would know _what_ it is... turacos (Musophagidae)
> and pigeons (Columbiformes) have recently been suggested and have quite 
> some
> support from the data.

The analysis by Mayr and Clarke (2003), using 148 osteological and soft 
tissue characters, found _Opisthocomus_  (hoatzin) to be the sister taxon to 
Cariamidae (seriemas).  The authors also suggest that the 
_Opisthocomus_-Cariamidae clade might have support in the fossil record.  
(This clade would also include the phorusrhacids.)


Reference

Mayr, G., and Clarke, J. (2003).  The deep divergences of neornithine birds: 
A phylogenetic analysis of morphological characters.  Cladistics 19(6): 
527-553.

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