Housekeeping in the bird subset of the LRT, plus Cnemiornis enters

One new taxon,
the giant flightless goose, Cnemiornis (Figs. 1, 2), and an old taxon with a new nesting, the Cretaceous enigma bird, Asteriornis (Field et al. 2020, Fig. 3), were recovered after a four-day binge review of theropods and birds in the large reptile tree (LRT 1861+ taxa; subset Fig. 4). Other changes are reviewed below. Low scores in your phylogenetic analysis = trouble.

You might remember,
we looked at Asteriornis, the so-called ‘super chicken, a year ago here (now updated).

Cnemiornis calcitrans
(Owen 1866; recently extinct; 1 m tall) is the New Zealand goose, a very large and flightless goose with reduced forelimbs, reduced sternum and not much webbing between the toes. The neck is longer than in Anser and pedal digit 1 is absent. So is the radius (Fig. 1). Compare the skull of Cnemiornis (Fig. 2) to that of the Cretaceous bird, Asteriornis (Fig 3).

Contra the conclusion of Field et al. 2020,
the presence of highly derived Asteriornis in latest Cretaceous strata indicates that all taxa that phylogenetically precede it had Cretaceous roots. At present this is only confirmed by the presence of 80-million-year-old Patagopteryx, an ostrich ancestor. Other Cretaceous crown birds will surely follow.

1. Megapodes (Megapodius) moves one node closer to ratites (Rhea).
2. Torgos, the Old World vulture now nests with Buteo, the common buzzard. New World vultures still nest with pigeons, as before.
3. The long-legged shorebird, Oedicnemus, moves one node over from crows to nest with Charadrius, the plover. Rhynchochetos, the flightless kagu, joins them.
4. Two small terrestrial pigeons, Columba and Caloenas + New World vultures, now branch off from water-loving plovers, and this clade is basal to water-loving shoebill storks, pelicans, frigates and petrels. I guess it’s time to start looking for a water-loving pigeon with long legs in the Cretaceous.
5. The frigate bird (Fregata) now nests between the shoebill (Balaeniceps) and the pelican (Pelecanus).
6. The long-beaked hamerkop (Scopus) moves one node over. It is now basal to long-beaked barbets, toucans (Pteroglossus) and hornbills on one node and on the other node, the long-beaked ibis (Threskiornis) and spoonbill giving rise to the short-beaked ducks and geese. Given that Cretaceous Asterornis now nests with geese, it’s time to start looking for hamerkops earlier in the Cretaceous.

Of course, none of the above hypothetical interrelationships
match genomic testing, which readers should be discouraged from ever using in deep time studies. Why? Because they lead to false positives. Using traits, as in the LRT, let’s you see, trait-by-trait how taxa slowly evolved via microevolution. With the present housekeeping based on new taxa and fresh looks at old taxa, the evolution from one taxa to another looks better. Not perfect. Never perfect. Just better.

Sharp-eyed readers will note
the deletion of all Bootstrap/Jackknife scores in the LRT and its subsets from now on. A kind reader noted such scores are impossible given the size of the LRT, overlooking the note that all such scores are based on smaller overlapping subsets due to limitations in computing power. That excuse is no longer needed with the deletion of all Bootstrap/ Jackknife scores from public view. The reader was right. Such scores are not appropriate for the LRT because they misinform. I will continue to use Bootstrap scores in my studies because they indicate strong and weak nodes in fully resolved subsets of the LRT. PAUP usually needs three extra steps to get scores over 50. Scores under 50, despite being fully resolved, usually means some sort of problem in my experience. Just getting a fully resolved subset is only the first step. Behind the scenes it won’t be the only step.

References
Field DJ, Benito J, Chen A, Jagt JWM and Ksepka DT 2020. Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds. Nature 579:397–401.
Owen R 1866. XI. On Dinornis (Part X.): containing a Description of part of the Skeleton of a flightless Bird indicative of a New Genus and Species (Cnemiornis calcitrans, Ow.) Journal of Zoology 1866 The Zoological Society of London.
Padian K 2020. Poultry through time. Nature online