The Caprimulgiformes is an order of birds that includes a number of birds with global distribution (except Antarctica). They are generally insectivorous and nocturnal. The order gets its name from the Latin for "goat-sucker", an old name based on an erroneous view of the European Nightjar's feeding habits. In scientific classification used in biology, the order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). ... For other uses, see Bird (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bird (disambiguation). ... Any organism with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures is an insectivore. ... A bat illustrating nocturnal features. ... Binomial name Caprimulgus europaeus Linnaeus, 1758 The European Nightjar, or just Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus, is the only representative of the nightjar family of birds in most of Europe and temperate Asia. ...

Systematics

The classification of the various birds that make up the order has long been controversial and difficult, particularly in the case of the nightjars. All things considered, the nightjar order would probably best be limited to potoos, nightjars, and eared-nightjars, all other lineages being elevated to order level, and the owlet-nightjars being altogether distant: In scientific classification used in biology, the order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). ...

• Family Steatornithidae (Oilbird) - probably distinct order N.N. ("Steatornithiformes"^[1])
• Family Podargidae (frogmouths, 12 species in 2 genera) - probably distinct order Podargiformes

• Family Nyctibiidae (Potoos, about 5 species in 1 genus)
• Family Caprimulgidae
  • Subfamily Chordeilinae (New World nighthawks)
  • Subfamily Caprimulginae (typical nightjars)
• Family Eurostopodidae (eared-nightjars)

Traditionally, they were regarded, on morphological grounds, as being midway between the owls (Strigiformes) and the swifts. Like the owls, they are nocturnal hunters with a highly developed sense of sight, and like the swifts they are excellent flyers with small, weak legs. At one time or another, they have allied with owls, swifts, kingfishers, hoopoes, mousebirds, hornbills, rollers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, trogons and hummingbirds. Binomial name Steatornis caripensis Humboldt, 1817 The Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) is a slim, long-winged bird related to the nightjars. ... The frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds related to the nightjars. ... The potoos are large near passerine birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. ... Genera Nyctiprogne Podager Lurocalis Chordeiles Nyctidromus Phalaenoptilus Siphonorhis Nyctiphrynus Caprimulgus Macrodipteryx Hydropsalis Uropsalis Macropsalis Eleothreptus Eurostopodus Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills that usually nest on the ground. ... For the stealth aircraft, see F-117 Nighthawk. ... “Goatsucker” redirects here. ... Species see text The Eared-nightjars are a small family of birds related to nightjars. ... For other uses, see Owl (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Swift (disambiguation). ... Families Alcedinidae Halcyonidae Cerylidae Kingfishers are birds of the three families Alcedinidae (river kingfishers), Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers), and Cerylidae (water kingfishers). ... Binomial name Upupa epops Linnaeus, 1758 The Hoopoe Upupa epops is in the same order of often colourful near passerine birds as the kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. ... Genera Colius Urocolius The mousebirds are a small group of near passerine birds which have no clear affinities to other groups, and are therefore given order status. ... Genera Aceros Anorrhinus Anthracoceros Buceros Bucorvus Ceratogymna (=Bycanistes) Ocyceros Penelopides Tockus Hornbills (Family Bucerotidae) are a group of birds whose bill is shaped like a cows horn, but without a twist, sometimes with a casque on the upper mandible. ... Genera Coracias Eurystomus The Rollers are an Old World family of near passerine birds. ... Genera Nyctyornis Meropogon Merops The bee-eaters are a group of near passerine birds in the family Meropidae. ... Genera Melanerpes Sphyrapicus Xiphidiopicus Dendropicos Dendrocopos Picoides Veniliornis Campethera Geocolaptes Dinopium Meiglyptes Hemicircus Micropternus Picus Mulleripicus Dryocopus Celeus Piculus Colaptes Campephilus Chrysocolaptes Reinwardtipicus Blythipicus Gecinulus Sapheopipo For other uses, see Woodpecker (disambiguation). ... Genera Apaloderma Euptilotis Harpactes Pharomachrus Priotelus Trogon The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. ... For the Australian jangle pop band, see The Hummingbirds. ...

Based on analysis of sequence data - notably β-fibrinogen intron 7 -, Fain & Houde (2004) considered the families of the Caprimulgiformes to be members of the proposed clade Metaves, which also includes the hoatzin, tropicbirds, sandgrouse, pigeons, kagu, sunbittern, mesites, flamingos, grebes and swifts and hummingbirds. This clade was also found by the expanded study of Ericson et al. (2006), but support was extremely weak. part of a DNA sequence A DNA sequence (sometimes genetic sequence) is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, The possible letters are A, C, G, and T, representing the four nucleotide subunits of a DNA strand (adenine, cytosine, guanine... Fibrin is a protein involved in the clotting of blood. ... Diagram of the location of introns and exons within a gene. ... Binomial name Ophisthocomus hoazin (Muller, 1776) The Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) is an odd species of tropical bird which is found in the swamps associated with the Amazon and Orinoco rivers of South America. ... Species The three tropicbirds are closely related seabirds of tropical oceans. ... Genera Pterocles Syrrhaptes The sandgrouse are a group of 16 near passerine bird species in the order Pteroclidiformes. ... Pigeon redirects here. ... Binomial name Verreaux & DesMurs, 1860 The Kagu or Cagou (Rhynochetos jubatus) is a long-legged blue-greyish bird, the only member of the family Rhynochetidae. ... Binomial name Eurypiga helias (Pallas, 1781) The Sunbittern (Eurypiga helias) is a bittern-like bird of tropical regions of the Americas. ... Genera Mesitornis Monias The mesites are a small group of birds of uncertain affinities often alternatively placed with the Rallidae. ... For the seminal American doo-wop group, best known for I Only Have Eyes for You (1959), see The Flamingos. ... Genera Podiceps Tachybaptus Podilymbus Aechmophorus Poliocephalus Rollandia Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes, a widely distributed order of freshwater diving birds, some of which visit the sea when migrating and in winter. ... For other meanings of the word Swift see Swift (disambiguation). ... For the Australian jangle pop band, see The Hummingbirds. ...

While only the latter study recovered monophyly of the Cypselomorphae (see below) within Metaves, the former was based on only a single locus and could not resolve their relationships according to standard criteria of statistical confidence. No morphological synapomorphies have been found that uniquely unite Metaves (or Caprimulgiformes for that matter), but numerous unlinked nuclear genes independently support their monophyly either in majority or whole. Ericson et al. (2006) concluded that if valid, the "Metaves" must originate quite some time before the Paleogene, and they reconciled this with the fossil record. A synapomorphy is, in evolutionary biology, a derived character-state shared by two or more terminal groups (taxa included in a cladistic analysis as further indivisible units) and inherited from their most recent common ancestor. ... Paleogene (alternatively Palaeogene) period is a unit of geologic time that began 65 and ended 23 million years ago. ...

While the relationships of cypselomorphs are a subject of ongoing debate, the phylogeny of the individual lineages is better resolved. Much of the remaining uncertainty regards minor details. In biology, phylogenetics (Greek: phylon = tribe, race and genetikos = relative to birth, from genesis = birth) is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e. ...

Initial mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis (Mariaux & Braun 1996) agreed with earlier morphological (Cracraft 1981) and DNA-DNA hybridization (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990) studies insofar as that the oilbird and the frogmouths seemed rather distinct. The other lineages appeared to form a clade, but this is now known to have been caused by methodological limitiations. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is DNA which is not located in the nucleus of the cell but in the mitochondria. ... CoQ Cytochrome c reductase The Coenzyme Q - cytochrome c reductase complex, sometimes called the cytochrome bc1 complex, and at other times Complex III, is the third complex in the electron transfer chain (PDB 1KYO, EC 1. ... part of a DNA sequence A DNA sequence (sometimes genetic sequence) is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, The possible letters are A, C, G, and T, representing the four nucleotide subunits of a DNA strand (adenine, cytosine, guanine... DNA-DNA hybridization is a method in genetics to measure the degree of genetic similarity between DNA sequences. ... A clade is a term belonging to the discipline of cladistics. ...

The Aegothelidae (owlet-nightjars) with about a dozen living species in one genus are apparently closer to the Apodiformes (Mayr 2002); these and the Caprimulgiformes are closely related, being grouped together as Cypselomorphae. The oilbird and the frogmouths seem quite distinct among the remaining Caprimulgiformes, but their exact placement cannot be resolved based on osteological data alone (Mary 2002). Families Apodidae Hemiprocnidae Traditionally, the bird order Apodiformes contained three families: the swifts, Apodidae, the tree swifts, Hemiprocnidae, and the hummingbirds, Trochilidae. ...

Even the study of Ericson et al. could not properly resolve the oilbird's and frogmouths' relationships beyond the fact that they are quite certainly well distinct. It robustly supported, however, the idea that the owlet-nightjars should be considered closer to Caprimulgiformes, unlike the methodologically weaker studies of Mariaux & Braun (1996) and Fain & Houde (2004).

Alternatively, Mayr's phylogenetic taxon Cypselomorphae might be placed at order rank and substitute the two present orders Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes. Such a group would be fairly uninformative as regards its evolutionary history, as it has to include some very plesiomorphic and some extremely derived lineages (such as hummingbirds) to achieve monophyly. In biology, phylogenetics (Greek: phylon = tribe, race and genetikos = relative to birth, from genesis = birth) is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e. ... This cladogram shows the relationship among various insect groups. ...

Evolution

The fossil record of caprimulgiform birds (in the loose sense) is rather scant. Nonetheless, it supports the emerging consensus phylogeny well. The genus Paraprefica, probably from the Early Eocene (though this is somewhat uncertain), seems to be a basal form that at times has been allied with the oilbird and the potoos, but cannot be assigned to either with certainty. In the consensus scenario, it would represent a record of the initial divergence of the three lineages. For other uses, see Fossil (disambiguation). ... The Ypresian is the first stage of the Eocene Epoch and usually corresponds to the Early Eocene subepoch, though sometimes the Lutetian is included therein. ... In phylogenetics, basal members of a group diverged earlier than a subgroup of others (or vice versa). ...

This nicely agrees with fossils suggesting that the basal divergence of the owlet-nightjar and apodiform branch also occurred during that time. In addition, Eocypselus, a Late Paleocene or Early Eocene genus of north-central Europe, cannot be assigned to any one cypselomorph lineage with certainty but appears to be some ancestral form. The Thanetian (also known as the Landenian or Heersian) is the last stage of the Paleocene Epoch, corresponding to the Late Paleocene sub-epoch. ... hfajhfiudshfas == == == --24. ...

These Paleogene birds strongly suggest that the 2 main extant lineages of cypselomorphs separated about 60-55 mya (Selandian-Thanetian), and that some time around the Lutetian-Bartonian boundary, some 40 mya, the common ancestors of Nyctibiidae, Caprimulgidae and Eurostopodidae diverged from those of oilbird and frogmouths. Paleogene (alternatively Palaeogene) period is a unit of geologic time that began 65 and ended 23 million years ago. ... For other uses of mya, see mya (disambiguation). ... Selandian is a stage of the middle Paleocene Epoch. ... The Thanetian (also known as the Landenian or the Heersian) is the last stage of the Paleocene Epoch. ... The Lutetian is a stage of the middle Eocene Epoch. ... The Bartonian (also known as the Auversian) is a stage of the middle Eocene Epoch. ...

References

• Cracraft, Joel (1981): Toward a phylogenetic classification of the recent birds of the world (Class Aves). Auk 98(4): 681–714. PDF fulltext
• Ericson, Per G.P.; Anderson, Cajsa L.; Britton, Tom; Elżanowski, Andrzej; Johansson, Ulf S. ; Källersjö, Mari; Ohlson, Jan I.; Parsons, Thomas J.; Zuccon, Dario & Mayr, Gerald (2006): Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils. Biol. Lett. 2(4): 543-547. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0523 PDF fulltext
• Fain, Matthew G. & Houde, Peter (2004): Parallel radiations in the primary clades of birds. Evolution 58(11): 2558-2573. doi:10.1554/04-235 PDF fulltext
• Mayr, Gerald (2002): Osteological evidence for paraphyly of the avian order Caprimulgiformes (nightjars and allies). Journal für Ornithologie 143(1): 82–97. doi:10.1046/j.1439-0361.2002.01030.x HTML abstract
• Mariaux, Jean & Braun, Michael J. (1996): A Molecular Phylogenetic Survey of the Nightjars and Allies (Caprimulgiformes) with Special Emphasis on the Potoos (Nyctibiidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6(2): 228–244. doi:10.1006/mpev.1996.0073 (HTML abstract)
• Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Auk is a quarterly journal and the official publication of the American Ornithologists Union, having been continuously published by that body since 1884. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Evolution, the International Journal of Organic Evolution, is a bimonthly scientific journal that publishes significant new results of empirical or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanics, or concepts of evolutionary phenomena and events. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Charles Sibley (August 7, 1917 - April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. ... Jon Edward Ahlquist specialized in molecular phylogenetics and ornithology, collaborating extensively with Charles Sibley, primarily at Yale University. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Apparently not a valid taxon (yet), and thus it must not be written without quotation marks.