Accipitrimorphae

Accipitrimorphae
Temporal range: Eocene-Present, 50–0 Ma
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Telluraves
Clade: Accipitrimorphae
Vieillot, 1816
Orders

Accipitrimorphae is a clade of birds of prey that includes the orders Cathartiformes (New World vultures) and Accipitriformes (diurnal birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, osprey and secretarybird). Accipitrimorphae belongs to the clade Telluraves. Historically, some authorities included the New World vultures in the Accipitriformes, but recognition of Cathartiformes as a separate order subsequently became more widespread.

The phylogenetic placement of New World vultures was long debated. Based in part on DNA–DNA hybridization studies, Sibley and Ahlquist (1990) supported a close relationship between New World vultures and storks (Ciconiidae). Subsequent high-quality molecular phylogenetic studies completely refuted the stork-vulture relationship, instead recovering them as a sister group to the order Accipitriformes. Catanach et al. (2024) discovered that the two groups diverged 61.3 million years ago.

Cladogram based on Jarvis et al. (2014).

Accipitrimorphae
Cathartiformes

Cathartidae (New World vultures)

Accipitriformes

Sagittariidae (Secretarybird)

Pandionidae (Osprey)

Accipitridae (Hawks, eagles, kites, Old World vultures etc.)

Notes

  1. ↑ Mayr G, Smith T. A diverse bird assemblage from the Ypresian of Belgium furthers knowledge of early Eocene avifaunas of the North Sea Basin. N Jb Geol Paläontol, Abh. 2019;291:253–281. doi: 10.1127/njgpa/2019/0801.
  2. 1 2 3 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 (27 June 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.
  3. ↑ Yuri, T. (2013) Parsimony and model-based analyses of indels in avian nuclear genes reveal congruent and incongruent phylogenetic signals. Biology, 2:419–44.
  4. ↑ Kimball, R.T. et al. (2013) Identifying localized biases in large datasets: A case study using the Avian Tree of Life. Mol Phylogenet Evol. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.05.029
  5. 1 2 3 4 Jarvis, Erich D.; Mirarab, Siavash; Aberer, Andre J.; Li, Bo; Houde, Peter; Li, Cai; Ho, Simon Y. W.; Faircloth, Brant C.; Nabholz, Benoit; Howard, Jason T.; Suh, Alexander; Weber, Claudia C.; da Fonseca, Rute R.; Li, Jianwen; Zhang, Fang; Li, Hui; Zhou, Long; Narula, Nitish; Liu, Liang; Ganapathy, Ganesh; Boussau, Bastien; Bayzid, Md Shamsuzzoha; Zavidovych, Volodymyr; Subramanian, Sankar; Gabaldón, Toni; Capella-Gutiérrez, Salvador; Huerta-Cepas, Jaime; Rekepalli, Bhanu; Munch, Kasper; Schierup, Mikkel; Lindow, Bent; Warren, Wesley C.; Ray, David; Green, Richard E.; Bruford, Michael W.; Zhan, Xiangjiang; Dixon, Andrew; Li, Shengbin; Li, Ning; Huang, Yinhua; Derryberry, Elizabeth P.; Bertelsen, Mads Frost; Sheldon, Frederick H.; Brumfield, Robb T.; Mello, Claudio V.; Lovell, Peter V.; Wirthlin, Morgan; Cruz Schneider, Maria Paula; Prosdocimi, Francisco; Samaniego, José Alfredo; Vargas Velazquez, Amhed Missael; Alfaro-Núñez, Alonzo; Campos, Paula F.; Petersen, Bent; Sicheritz-Ponten, Thomas; Pas, An; Bailey, Tom; Scofield, Paul; Bunce, Michael; Lambert, David M.; Zhou, Qi; Perelman, Polina; Driskell, Amy C.; Shapiro, Beth; Xiong, Zijun; Zeng, Yongli; Liu, Shiping; Li, Zhenyu; Liu, Binghang; Wu, Kui; Xiao, Jin; Xiong, Yinqi; Zheng, Qiemei; Zhang, Yong; Yang, Huanming; Wang, Jian; Smeds, Linnea; Rheindt, Frank E.; Braun, Michael; Fjeldsa, Jon; Orlando, Ludovic; Barker, F. Keith; Jønsson, Knud Andreas; Johnson, Warren; Koepfli, Klaus-Peter; O'Brien, Stephen; Haussler, David; Ryder, Oliver A.; Rahbek, Carsten; Willerslev, Eske; Graves, Gary R.; Glenn, Travis C.; McCormack, John; Burt, Dave; Ellegren, Hans; Alström, Per; Edwards, Scott V.; Stamatakis, Alexandros; Mindell, David P.; Cracraft, Joel; Braun, Edward L.; Warnow, Tandy; Wang, Jun; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Zhang, Guojie (2014). "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds". Science. 346 (6215): 1320–1331. doi:10.1126/science.1253451. PMC 4405904. PMID 25504713.
  6. ↑ Chesser et al. 2010.
  7. ↑ Remsen et al. 2021.
  8. ↑ del Hoyo, Josep; Collar, Nigel J. (2014). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1: Non-passerines. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-84-96553-94-1.
  9. ↑ Chesser, R. Terry; Burns, Kevin J.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Lovette, Irby J.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V.; Rising, James D.; Stotz, Douglas F.; Winker, Kevin (2016). "Fifty-seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds". The Auk. 133 (3): 544–560. doi:10.1642/AUK-16-77.1.
  10. ↑ "Updates & Corrections – August 2017". Clements Checklist. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2017-08-15. Orders and Families: Cathartiformes. Retrieved 2026-10-25.
  11. ↑ AviList Core Team. 2026. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2026. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2026
  12. ↑ Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
  13. 1 2 Stiller, Josefin; Feng, Shaohong; Chowdhury, Al-Aabid; Rivas-González, Iker; Duchêne, David A.; Fang, Qi; Deng, Yuan; Kozlov, Alexey; Stamatakis, Alexandros; Claramunt, Santiago; Nguyen, Jacqueline M. T.; Ho, Simon Y. W.; Faircloth, Brant C.; Haag, Julia; Houde, Peter; Cracraft, Joel; Balaban, Metin; Mai, Uyen; Chen, Guangji; Gao, Rongsheng; Zhou, Chengran; Xie, Yulong; Huang, Zijian; Cao, Zhen; Yan, Zhi; Ogilvie, Huw A.; Nakhleh, Luay; Lindow, Bent; Morel, Benoit; Fjeldså, Jon; Hosner, Peter A.; da Fonseca, Rute R.; Petersen, Bent; Tobias, Joseph A.; Székely, Tamás; Kennedy, Jonathan David; Reeve, Andrew Hart; Liker, Andras; Stervander, Martin; Antunes, Agostinho; Tietze, Dieter Thomas; Bertelsen, Mads F.; Lei, Fumin; Rahbek, Carsten; Graves, Gary R.; Schierup, Mikkel H.; Warnow, Tandy; Braun, Edward L.; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Jarvis, Erich D.; Mirarab, Siavash; Zhang, Guojie (2024). "Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes". Nature. 629 (8013): 851–860. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1. PMID 38560995.
  14. ↑ Catanach, T.A.; Halley, M.R.; Pirro, S. (2024). "Enigmas no longer: using ultraconserved elements to place several unusual hawk taxa and address the non-monophyly of the genus Accipiter (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 144 (2) blae028. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blae028.

Sources