Galliformes

Orange-footed scrubfowls Megapodius reinwardt, copyright Andrea Arbogast.

Belongs within: Galloanseres.
Contains: Cracidae, Phasiani.

The Galliformes, gamebirds, are a cosmopolitan group of heavy-bodied, largely terrestrial birds with short, rounded wings adapted for rapid bursts of flight; walking is commonly the preferred means of locomotion. Members of the galliform crown group are united by possession of a shallow cotyla scapularis on the coracoid (Mayr & Weidig 2004).

Galliformes [Craci, Cracoidea, Galli]
    |--Sylviornis [Sylviornithes, Sylviornithidae] WD17
    |    `--S. neocaledoniae Poplin 1980 WD17
    `--+--Megavitiornis Worthy 2000 WD17, W00
       |    `--*M. altirostris Worthy 2000 W00
       `--+--+--Cracidae MW04
          |  `--Phasiani MW04
          `--Megapodiidae MW04
               |  i. s.: Chosornis praeteritus FP64
               |         Progura gallinacea De Vis 1889 W00, U93 [incl. P. naracoortensis van Tets 1974 W00]
               |         Ngawupodius minya Boles & Ivison 1999 M09
               |         Mwalau WD17
               |--+--Talegalla Lesson 1828 WD17, B94 [Talegallidae]
               |  |    |--T. cuvieri JT12
               |  |    |--T. fuscirostris W00
               |  |    `--T. jobiensis W00
               |  `--+--Leipoa Gould 1840 WD17, B94 [Leipoidae]
               |     |    `--L. ocellata Gould 1840 WS48
               |     `--+--Aepypodius BKB15
               |        |    |--A. arfakianus W00
               |        |    `--A. bruijnii JT12
               |        `--Alectura Latham 1824 WD17, B94 (see below for synonymy)
               |             `--A. lathami Gray 1831 [=Catheturus lathami, Tallegallus lathami] CC10
               |                  |--A. l. lathami PT03
               |                  `--A. l. purpureicollis PT03
               `--+--Macrocephalon Müller 1846 WD17, B94 [Macrocephalidae]
                  |    `--M. maleo W00
                  `--+--Eulipoa wallacei WD17
                     `--Megapodius Gaimard 1823 WD17, B94
                          |  i. s.: M. alimentum Steadman 1989 W00
                          |         M. amissus Worthy 2000 W00
                          |         M. bernsteinii JT12
                          |         M. geelvinkianus JT12
                          |         M. laperouse W00
                          |           |--M. l. laperouse FP64
                          |           `--M. l. senex FP64
                          |         M. molistructor W00
                          |         M. nicobariensis JT12
                          |--M. wallacei BKB15
                          `--+--+--M. cumingii JT12
                             |  |    |--M. c. cumingii R02
                             |  |    `--M. c. sanghirensis R02
                             |  `--M. tenimberensis JT12
                             `--+--+--M. layardi JT12
                                |  `--M. pritchardii JT12
                                `--+--+--M. eremita BKB15
                                   |  `--M. reinwardt BKB15
                                   `--+--M. affinis BKB15
                                      `--+--M. forstenii BKB15
                                         `--M. freycinet Gaimard 1823 BKB15, C04
                                              |--M. f. freycinet WS48
                                              `--M. f. tumulus Gould 1842 WS48

Alectura Latham 1824 WD17, B94 [incl. Catheturus Swainson 1837 B94; Alecturidae, Catheturidae]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[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.

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[C04] Clarke, J. A. 2004. Morphology, phylogenetic taxonomy, and systematics of Ichthyornis and Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 286: 1–179.

[FP64] Fisher, J., & R. T. Peterson. 1964. The World of Birds: A comprehensive guide to general ornithology. Macdonald: London.

[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.

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

[MW04] Mayr, G., & I. Weidig. 2004. The Early Eocene bird Gallinuloides wyomingensis—a stem group representative of Galliformes. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (2): 211–217.

[PT03] Prum, R. O., & R. Torres. 2003. Structural colouration of avian skin: Convergent evolution of coherently scattering dermal collagen arrays. Journal of Experimental Biology 206: 2409–2429.

[R02] Riley, J. 2002. Population sizes and the status of endemic and restricted-range bird species on Sangihe Island, Indonesia. Bird Conservation International 12: 53–78.

[U93] Unwin, D. M. 1993. Aves. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 717–737. Chapman & Hall: London.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.

[W00] Worthy, T. H. 2000. The fossil megapodes (Aves: Megapodiidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and two new species. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30 (4): 337–364.

[WD17] Worthy, T. H., F. J. Degrange, W. D. Handley & M. S. Y. Lee. 2017. The evolution of giant flightless birds and novel phylogenetic relationships for extinct fowl (Aves, Galloanseres). Royal Society Open Science 4: 170975.