Another fun little diversion to keep my creative juices flowing!
First things first; this thread will follow the most recent taxonomic reassessment of the various ratite families, which places the Tinamidae - previously held to be a distinct group sister to the ratites sensu lato within a larger Palaeognathae - in a position deeply nested within the ratite radiation. I will discuss this more as this thread proceeds, but it goes without saying that the ramifications of this taxonomic reassessment - which also moved a number of ratite families to previously-unexpected positions in the overall cladogram - are rather interesting, suggesting as they do that *all* recent ratite families evolved flightlessness independently from one another, given how widely spread sister families seem to be.
Secondly, for the purposes of discussing which species and subspecies are valid I shall predominantly follow the list published on the Handbook of the Birds of the World webpage, with one notable exception; where the three extant cassowary taxa are concerned, I shall take the opportunity to discuss the preliminary findings published in the excellent Taxonomy of the Genus Casuarius: The defined and known living Cassowary species and subspecies (2016) by the late Richard Perron; given the fact that cassowary taxonomy is highly complex and unclear due to introductions outside of native range, hybridisation between species, a high level of natural variation within species and deliberate alteration and manipulation of taxidermy specimens which have reached Western collections, the HBW website takes a very conservative approach with regards to the genus.
Finally, although I will not discuss the two recently-extinct orders of ratite in great detail, they will be mentioned in brief terms at the respective correct points in the proposed cladistic analysis.
First things first; this thread will follow the most recent taxonomic reassessment of the various ratite families, which places the Tinamidae - previously held to be a distinct group sister to the ratites sensu lato within a larger Palaeognathae - in a position deeply nested within the ratite radiation. I will discuss this more as this thread proceeds, but it goes without saying that the ramifications of this taxonomic reassessment - which also moved a number of ratite families to previously-unexpected positions in the overall cladogram - are rather interesting, suggesting as they do that *all* recent ratite families evolved flightlessness independently from one another, given how widely spread sister families seem to be.
Secondly, for the purposes of discussing which species and subspecies are valid I shall predominantly follow the list published on the Handbook of the Birds of the World webpage, with one notable exception; where the three extant cassowary taxa are concerned, I shall take the opportunity to discuss the preliminary findings published in the excellent Taxonomy of the Genus Casuarius: The defined and known living Cassowary species and subspecies (2016) by the late Richard Perron; given the fact that cassowary taxonomy is highly complex and unclear due to introductions outside of native range, hybridisation between species, a high level of natural variation within species and deliberate alteration and manipulation of taxidermy specimens which have reached Western collections, the HBW website takes a very conservative approach with regards to the genus.
Finally, although I will not discuss the two recently-extinct orders of ratite in great detail, they will be mentioned in brief terms at the respective correct points in the proposed cladistic analysis.
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