| Novaeratitae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Portrait of a southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Infraclass: | Palaeognathae |
| Clade: | Novaeratitae Yuri et al., 2013 |
| Orders | |
Novaeratitae is a proposed clade that was originally defined to contain the recent common ancestors of the ordersCasuariiformes (emus andcassowaries) andApterygiformes (kiwi).[1][2] This clade was named by Yuriet al. (2013) and phylogenetically defined in thePhyloCode by Sangsteret al. (2022) as "the least inclusive crown clade containingApteryx australis andCasuarius casuarius".[3] Recently it has been determined that theelephant birds of the extinct orderAepyornithiformes were the closest relatives of the kiwis, and therefore are part of this group.[4] The implication is that ratites had lost flight independently in each group, as the elephant birds are the onlynovaeratites found outsideOceania.[4] This clade has been contested by other studies, which find the relationships between the four main clades of non-ostrich palaeognaths (moa+tinamou, kiwi+elephant bird, rheas, and emus+cassowaries) to be an unresolvedpolytomy, with only slightly more genetic support for Novaeritiae over alternative proposals.[5]
 | This bird-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
_white_background.jpg)
