Elementaves STERVANDER (et al.), 2024 (2 Viewers)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

By following (some of) what's going on in the Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature forum, I noticed the thread Phylogeny of birds, and this particular post, written by Martin Stervander himself [let's hope it's not a Joke (as it was published on the 1st of April) ], which took me onwards, to the text below, commenting the same Paper, and in parts dealing with New Bird name/s (even if on a Higher level than we usually keep ourselves busy with):

A new family tree revises our understanding of bird evolution
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A team of researchers from the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) consortium, initiated by Professor ZHANG Guojie of Centre for Evolutionary & Organismal Biology at Zhejiang University and collaborators, has reported a new bird family tree that promises to reshape our understanding of avian evolution. Published in Nature on April 1st, 2024, the study entitled Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes marks a pivotal advancement in the long-contested evolutionary relationships among living birds.
[...]
The new family tree is breaking new ground in the long journey to unravel the mysteries of bird evolution. According to this updated bird family tree, a group containing flamingos and grebes (called Mirandornithes) were among the first neoavian lineages to evolve. The new tree is challenging the organization of Neoaves by classifying this big group into four major clades: Mirandornithes, Columbaves, Elementaves, and Telluraves. Elementaves is a newly proposed grouping comprising ca. 14% of all species of modern birds including disparate groups such as the enigmatic hoatzin, shorebirds, hummingbirds and tropicbirds. Elementaves is named to reflect the group’s remarkable diversity in ecological niches, representing the major elements of Earth, air and water. This new family tree resolves some long-standing debates over the relationships among avian species and lays a solid foundation for studying avian evolution and trait development. ...

[from here]​

Thereafter also commented in the same Phylogeny of birds thread (here):

We name the clade Elementaves because its lineages have diversified into terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial niches, corresponding to the classical elements of earth, water, and air, and several Phaethontimorphae have names derived from the sun, representing fire.​

Thus, an apt name (both justified and well-motivated) ...

Cheers

/B