Re: Big birds on Paleoworld

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>I did notice that it is very different from most classifications, but 
>intuitively many aspects of it make sense to me.  It is also much more 
>compact than the traditional "Class Aves", without the thirty or so 
>orders usually included therein.  This seems to me more in keeping with 
>the fact that modern bird groups have only had about one hundred million 
>years (at MOST) to differentiate.
>
>     Thanks!
>
>     Nick Pharris

Um.. bear in mind that I did not include every order Sibley and Monroe
recognize - just the one containing the birds you asked about.  S&M
recognize 23 orders of living birds. Some of these involve dividing, not
lumping, traditional orders - ie Turniciformes is split from Gruiformes,
Trochiliformes from Apodiformes - and they recognize many more families of
non-passerines - ie cuckoos are split into 5 families (plus the hoatzin),
kingfishers into 3.  Passeriformes include some very large families, though,
with all the nine-primaried oscines in Fringillidae and a huge Corvidae
including, besides crows and jays, many Australasian groups (eg whistlers,
fantails, monarch flycatchers), African bush shrikes, old world orioles etc
- 650 species in all.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
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