Piciformes

Belongs within: Coraciimorphae.
Contains: Galbulae, Pici.

The Piciformes are a group of birds characterised by the possession of a zygodactylous foot with both the first and fourth toes directed backwards. Living species are divided between the Galbulae, including jacamars (Galbulidae) and puffbirds (Bucconidae), and the Pici, including barbets and toucans (Capitonoidea), honeyguides (Indicatoridae) and woodpeckers (Picidae).

The Sylphornithidae are tiny, long-legged birds from the Eocene and Oligocene of Europe that have been identified as possible stem-Piciformes. Unlike in modern Piciformes, the foot appears to have been only facultatively zygodactylous. The tarsometatarsus was extraordinarily long and slender with a very wide distal end bearing short trochleae (Mayr 2009). Another possible family of stem-Piciformes is the Gracilitarsidae, small birds from the Paleogene of Europe and the Americas (Mayr 2009).

Synapomorphies (Mayr 2005): Coracoid with distinct notch on medial side of extremitas sternalis; humerus with far ventrodistally extending, large fossa musculi brachialis situated on far medial side of bone, with weakly developed ventral margin; carpometacarpus with well-developed processus intermetacarpalis fused with os metacarpale minus; trochlea metatarsi IV with plantarly projecting wing-like flange; hypotarsus of tarsometatarsus with tendon of musculus flexor hallucis longus situated in marked sulcus medially bordered by prominent crista lateralis hypotarsi.

<==Piciformes
    |--+--GalbulaeM04
    |  `--PiciM04
    |--SylphornithidaeM04
    |    |--Oligosylphe mourerchauvireae Mayr & Smith 2002M09
    |    |--Sylphornis Mourer-Chauviré 1988M02
    |    |    `--*S. bretouensis Mourer-Chauviré 1988M02
    |    `--Palaegithalus Milne-Edwards 1871M09, M02 [Palaegithalidae]
    |         `--*P. cuvieri (Gervais 1848-1852) [=Sitta cuvieri]M02
    `--GracilitarsidaeM05
         |--Gracilitarsus Mayr 1998M01
         |    `--*G. mirabilis Mayr 1998M01
         |--Eutreptodactylus Baird & Vickers-Rich 1997M05
         |    `--E. itaboraiensis Baird & Vickers-Rich 1997M01
         `--NeanisM09
              |--N. kistneri Feduccia 1973M09
              `--N. schucherti (Shufeldt 1913)M09 [=Hebe schuchertiRC02]

Trachyphonus margaritatus (Cretzschmar 1828) [=Bucco margaritatus, Micropogon margaritatus]^S05

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[A61] Austin, O. L., Jr. 1961. Birds of the World: A survey of the twenty-seven orders and one hundred and fifty-five families. Paul Hamlyn: London.

[B94] Bock, W. J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1–281.

[BKB15] Burleigh, J. G., R. T. Kimball & E. L. Braun. 2015. Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 53–63.

[BP87] Burton, J. A., & B. Pearson. 1987. Collins Guide to the Rare Mammals of the World. Collins: London.

[EA06] Ericson, P. G. P., C. L. Anderson, T. Britton, A. Elzanowski, U. S. Johansson, M. Källersjö, J. I. Ohlson, T. J. Parsons, D. Zuccon & G. Mayr. 2006. Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils. Biology Letters 2 (4): 543–547.

[HK08] Hackett, S. J., R. T. Kimball, S. Reddy, R. C. K. Bowie, E. L. Braun, M. J. Braun, J. L. Chojnowski, W. A. Cox, K.-L. Han, J. Harshman, C. J. Huddleston, B. D. Marks, K. J. Miglia, W. S. Moore, F. H. Sheldon, D. W. Steadman, C. C. Witt & T. Yuri. 2008. A phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history. Science 320: 1763–1768.

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

[KF-V21] Kuhl, H., C. Frankl-Vilches, A. Bakker, G. Mayr, G. Nikolaus, S. T. Boerno, S. Klages, B. Timmermann & M. Gahr. 2021. An unbiased molecular approach using 3′-UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38 (1): 108–127.

[LZ07] Livezey, B. C., & R. L. Zusi. 2007. Higher-order phylogeny of modern birds (Theropoda, Aves: Neornithes) based on comparative anatomy. II. Analysis and discussion. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149 (1): 1–95.

[M01] Mayr, G. 2001. A new specimen of the tiny Middle Eocene bird Gracilitarsus mirabilis (new family: Gracilitarsidae). Condor 103 (1): 78–84.

[M04] Mayr, G. 2004. The phylogenetic relationships of the early Tertiary Primoscenidae and Sylphornithidae and the sister taxon of crown group piciform birds. Journal of Ornithology 145: 188–198.

[M05] Mayr, G. 2005. The Paleogene fossil record of birds in Europe. Biological Reviews 80: 515–542.

[M09] Mayr, G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer.

[M02] Mlíkovský, J. 2002. Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press: Praha.

[PB15] Prum, R. O., J. S. Berv, A. Dornburg, D. J. Field, J. P. Townsend, E. M. Lemmon & A. R. Lemmon. 2015. A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526: 569–573.

[S05] Steinheimer, F. D. 2005. Eduard Rüppel’s avian types at the Natural History Museum, Tring (Aves). Senckenbergiana Biologica 85 (2): 233–264.