iRaphidae
Dodo skeleton, Natural History Museum, London
Conservation status
Extinct  (c.1730)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Columbiformes Family: Columbidae Verheyen, 1957 Subfamily: Raphinae
Genera
Pezophaps (extinct) Raphus (extinct) The Natural History Museum from the south east The Natural History Museum, one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum), is home to life and earth science collections comprising some 70 million items. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive. ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... Events Pope Clement XII elected September 17 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed III (1703-1730) to Mahmud I (1730-1754) Anna Ivanova (Anna I of Russia) became czarina Births April 16 - Henry Clinton, British general (d. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera Subregnum Eumetazoa Placozoa Orthonectida Rhombozoa Radiata (unranked) Ctenophora Cnidaria Bilateria (unranked) Acoelomorpha Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata Hemichordata Echinodermata Chaetognatha Superphylum Ecdysozoa Kinorhyncha Loricifera Priapulida Nematoda Nematomorpha Onychophora Tardigrada Arthropoda Superphylum Platyzoa Platyhelminthes Gastrotricha Rotifera Acanthocephala Gnathostomulida Micrognathozoa Cycliophora Superphylum Lophotrochozoa Sipuncula Nemertea Phoronida Bryozoa Entoprocta Brachiopoda... Typical Classes Subphylum Urochordata - Tunicates Ascidiacea Thaliacea Larvacea Subphylum Cephalochordata - Lancelets Subphylum Myxini - Hagfishes Subphylum Vertebrata - Vertebrates Petromyzontida - Lampreys Placodermi (extinct) Chondrichthyes - Cartilaginous fishes Acanthodii (extinct) Actinopterygii - Ray-finned fishes Actinistia - Coelacanths Dipnoi - Lungfishes Amphibia - Amphibians Reptilia - Reptiles Aves - Birds Mammalia - Mammals Chordates (phylum Chordata) include the vertebrates, together with... For other meanings of bird, see bird (disambiguation). ... Families Raphidae Columbidae The order Columbiformes includes two families of birds: the Raphidae, to which the extinct Dodo and Rodrigues Solitaires belonged, and the Columbidae, which includes the very widespread and successful doves and pigeons. ... Pigeon redirects here. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Synonyms
Raphidae Poche, 1904[verification needed] In scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Raphinae are a subfamily of extinct flightless birds colloquially called didines or didine birds^[1]. They inhabited the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, but became extinct through hunting by humans and predation by introduced non-native mammals following human colonisation in the 1600s. ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... Flightless birds evolved from flying ancestors; there are about forty species in existence today. ... Mauritius (right) and Réunion (left) The Mascarene Islands (or Mascarenhas Archipelago) is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, which includes Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, and Cargados Carajos shoals. ... Map of Rodrigues Rodrigues (or, incorrectly, Rodriguez) is one of the Mascarene Islands and a dependency of Mauritius. ... Orders Multituberculata (extinct) Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Australosphenida Ausktribosphenida Monotremata Subclass Eutheria (excludes extinct ancestors) Afrosoricida Anagaloidea (extinct) Arctostylopida (extinct) Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Cimolesta (extinct) Cingulata Creodonta (extinct) Condylarthra (extinct) Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Dinocerata (extinct) Embrithopoda (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Leptictida (extinct) Litopterna (extinct) Macroscelidea Mesonychia (extinct) Notoungulata... November 5, 1605 â€” The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British Parliament. ...

This clade is part of the order Columbiformes and contains the monotypic genera Pezophaps and Raphus. The former contains the species Pezophaps solitaria (the Rodrigues Solitaire), the latter the Dodo, Raphus cucullatus. These birds reached an impressive size as a result of isolation on predatorless islands in accordance with Foster's rule. A clade is a term belonging to the discipline of cladistics. ... Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Families Raphidae Columbidae The order Columbiformes includes two families of birds: the Raphidae, to which the extinct Dodo and Rodrigues Solitaires belonged, and the Columbidae, which includes the very widespread and successful doves and pigeons. ... Monotypic refers to a taxonomic group with only one subgroup at the next (smaller) taxonomic level, for example, a monotypic genus has only one species. ... See genus (mathematics) for the use of the term in mathematics. ... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... Binomial name Pezophaps solitaria (Gmelin, 1789) The Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) was a flightless member of the pigeon family endemic to Rodrigues, Mauritius. ... Binomial name Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus, 1758 Former range (in red) The Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus; Didus ineptus is an obsolete name), more commonly just dodo, was a metre-high (three-foot) flightless bird of the island of Mauritius. ... This snapping turtle is trying to make a meal of a Canada goose, but the goose is too wary. ... Fosters rule (also known as the island rule) is a principle in evolutionary biology stating that members of a species will get smaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment. ...

The "Réunion Solitaire", long considered a third extinct didine bird, has turned out to be an ibis. Binomial name Threskiornis solitarius Sélys, 1848 The Réunion Sacred Ibis, Réunion Flightless Ibis (see below) or Threskiornis solitarius, is an extinct bird species that was native to the island of Réunion. ... Genera Threskiornis Pseudibis Thaumatibis Geronticus Nipponia Bostrychia Theristicus Cercibis Mesembrinibis Phimosus Eudocimus Plegadis Lophotibis Ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. ...

The didines are often separated as a distinct family Raphidae, and their affinities were for long uncertain; they were initially placed within the ratites due to their peculiar, flightlessness-related apomorphies, and a relationship to the Rallidae has also been suggested. Osteological and molecular data, however, agrees that placement in the Columbidae is more appropriate (Janoo 2005). In biological classification, family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is 1) a rank or 2) a taxon in that rank. ... Families Struthionidae Casuariidae Dinornithidae Apterygidae Rheidae A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanian origin, most of them now extinct. ... This cladogram shows the relationship among various insect groups. ... Genera Sarothrura Himantornis Canirallus Coturnicops Micropygia Rallina Anurolimnas Laterallus Nesoclopeus Gallirallus Rallus Lewinia Dryolimnas Crex Rougetius Aramidopsis Atlantisia Aramides Amaurolimnas Gymnocrex Amaurornis Porzana Aenigmatolimnas Cyanolimnas Neocrex Pardirallus Eulabeornis Habroptila Megacrex Gallicrex Porphyrio Gallinula Fulica The family Rallidae is a large group of small to medium-sized birds which includes the... Osteology is the scientific study of bones. ...

Comparison of mitochondrial cytochrome b and 12S rRNA sequences (Shapiro et al. 2002) suggests the Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is the closest living relative of the Dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire. This does not actually imply a very close relationship, however, and at any rate, the molecular phylogeny of the Indo-Australian pigeons has yielded wildly differing results depending on the gene sequence analyzed (compare with Johnson & Clayton 2000). In cell biology, a mitochondrion is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes. ... 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. ... A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is any RNA molecule that functions without being translated into a protein. ... 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... Binomial name Caloenas nicobarica (Linnaeus, 1758) The Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is a pigeon which is a resident breeding bird on small uninhabited islands in Indonesia and the Nicobar Islands. ... Binomial name Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus, 1758 Former range (in red) The Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus; Didus ineptus is an obsolete name), more commonly just dodo, was a metre-high (three-foot) flightless bird of the island of Mauritius. ... Binomial name Pezophaps solitaria (Gmelin, 1789) The Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) was a flightless member of the pigeon family endemic to Rodrigues, Mauritius. ... Molecular phylogeny is the use of the structure of molecules to gain information on an organisms evolutionary relationships. ...

What appears certain, regardless of the closest living relative of the didines, is that they belong to a basal Indo-Australian radiation of pigeons. Apart from the didines, this comprised of such animals as the Goura crowned pigeons, the Pheasant Pigeon, Ducula and Ptilinopus, and the Nicobar Pigeon. Accordingly, until better material evidence of the didines' ancestry is available, they are here considered a subfamily of the Columbidae. In phylogenetics, basal members of a group are subgroups that diverged very early from the others. ... Goura can mean: One of several species of large, crested ground pigeons of the genus Goura, inhabiting New Guinea and adjacent islands. ... Binomial name Otidiphaps nobilis Gould, 1870 The Pheasant Pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis ) is a pigeon found in the primary rainforests of New Guinea. ... Species Ptilinopus jambu Ptilinopus layardi Ptilinopus magnificus Ptilinopus porphyreus Ptilinopus roseicapilla Ptilinopus superbus . ... Pigeon redirects here. ...

No good data is available for dating the group's evolution. Based on the data analyzed by Shapiro et al., they gave an estimate of 32-56 mya for the didine - Caloenas divergence. This may or may not be roughly correct; the more precise date of c.43 mya most likely isn't since the molecular clock was calibrated with a presumed penguin - Procellariiformes divergence that has since been invalidated by Waimanu. It is far more likely than not, however, that this group's origin lay in the Paleogene than in the Neogene, as indicated by the paleogeography of the W Indian Ocean area, notably the Mascarene Plateau. In 1832, while traveling on the Beagle, naturalist Charles Darwin collected giant fossils in South America. ... In astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya is an acronym for million years ago and is used as a unit of time to denote length of time before the present. ... The molecular clock (based on the molecular clock hypothesis (MCH)) is a technique in genetics, which researchers use to date when two species diverged. ... Modern Genera Aptenodytes Eudyptes Eudyptula Megadyptes Pygoscelis Spheniscus For extinct genera, see Systematics Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of aquatic, flightless birds living exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. ... Families Procellariidae Diomedeidae Hydrobatidae Pelecanoididae Procellariiformes (from the Latin procella, a storm) is an order of birds formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English. ... Species Waimanu (waterbird) was a genus of early penguin which lived soon after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, lending support to the theory that the radiation of modern birds took place before the extinction of the dinosaurs, not after as others had proposed. ... Paleogene (alternatively Palaeogene) period is a unit of geologic time that began 65 and ended 23 million years ago. ... Neogene Period is a unit of geologic time consisting of the Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene epochs. ... Palaeogeography is the study of the ancient geography of the Earths surface. ... The Mascarene Plateau is an undersea plateau in the Indian Ocean, north and east of Madagascar. ...

References

• Janoo, Anwar (2005): Discovery of isolated dodo bones [Raphus cucullatus (L.), Aves, Columbiformes] from Mauritius cave shelters highlights human predation, with a comment on the status of the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930. Annales de Paléontologie 91: 167–180. [English with French abstract] DOI:10.1016/j.annpal.2004.12.002 (HTML abstract)

• Johnson, Kevin P. & Clayton, Dale H. (2000): Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genes Contain Similar Phylogenetic. Signal for Pigeons and Doves (Aves: Columbiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14(1): 141–151. PDF fulltext

• Shapiro, Beth; Sibthorpe, Dean; Rambaut, Andrew; Austin, Jeremy; Wragg, Graham M.; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf R. P.; Lee, Patricia L. M. & Cooper, Alan (2002): Flight of the Dodo. Science 295: 1683. DOI:10.1126/science.295.5560.1683 (HTML abstract) Supplementary information

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Footnotes

1. ^ From the dodo's obsolete genus name, Didus