Everything about Cypselomorphae totally explained
Cypselomorphae is a
clade of
birds. It includes the living
families and
orders Caprimulgidae (nightjars, nighthawks and allies),
Nyctibiidae (potoos),
Apodiformes (swifts and hummingbirds), as well as the
Aegotheliformes (owlet-nightjars) whose distinctness was only recently realized. Several other families have recently been moved out of the
Caprimulgiformes, being even more distantly related; it isn't clear whether these (
oilbirds and
frogmouths) should be included in the Cypselomorphae or not.
The
Apodiformes (which include the "
Trochiliformes" of the
Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy) and the
Aegotheliformes form the
Daedalornithes.
In addition, several fossil
taxa are tentatively placed here as
basal or
incertae sedis
The relationships of the Early Eocene
Parvicuculus and
Procuculus from the southern
North Sea basin are unresolved, but they bear some similarities to cypselomorphs.
The fossil evidence is quite consistent in this group. Over some 20 million years, throughout the
Eocene, the present-day diversity (as well as some entirely extinct lineages) slowly unfolds. By mid-Oligocene, some 30 million years ago, the
crown lineages are present and adapting to their present-day
ecological niches.
By the distribution of fossils, the Paleogene radiation seems to have originated in
Asia, which at that time became a highly fragmented landscape as the
Himalayas lifted up and the
Turgai Strait started to disappear.
The Cypselomorphae are part of the proposed
Metaves. The material evidence for this group is very equivocal; the most ancient Cypselomorphae are quite nondescript tree-dwellers but already tend towards peculiarly
apomorphic feet, and no
Cretaceous fossils are known that would link them to other "Metaves" such as
Mirandornithes.
Torpor and other
metabolic peculiarities are very frequently found in this group, perhaps more often than in any other bird lineage.
Their shared
apomorphies are:
ossa maxillaria separated by a large cleft, a
mandible with very short
pars symphysialis, and
rami mandibulae very slender in their
distal half.
Footnotes
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