| Gruiformes | |
|---|---|
| |
| Crested crane, Balearica regulorum | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Neoaves |
| Order: | Gruiformes Bonaparte, 1854 |
| Families | |
|
Some 5–10 living, see article text. | |
| |
| Global distribution of the cranes and allies. | |
The Gruiformes (/ˈɡruːɪfɔːrmiːz/ GROO-ih-for-meez)[citation needed] are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that did not seem to belong to any other order were classified together as Gruiformes. These include 15 species of large cranes, about 145 species of smaller crakes and rails, as well as a variety of families comprising one to three species, such as the Heliornithidae, the limpkin, or the Psophiidae. Other birds have been placed in this order more out of necessity to place them somewhere; this has caused the expanded Gruiformes to lack distinctive apomorphies. Recent studies indicate that these "odd Gruiformes" are if at all only loosely related to the cranes, rails, and relatives ("core Gruiformes").
- ^ Mourer-Chaviré C. (1995) The Messelornithidae (Aves: Gruiformes) from the Paleogene of France. - Cour. Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg, 181: 95-105
- ^ Mayr, Gerald (2016). Avian evolution: the fossil record of birds and its paleobiological significance. Topics in Paleobiology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-119-02076-9.
- ^ Kuhl., H.; Frankl-Vilches, C.; Bakker, A.; Mayr, G.; Nikolaus, G.; Boerno, S. T.; Klages, S.; Timmermann, B.; Gahr, M. (2020). "An unbiased molecular approach using 3'UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38: 108–127. doi:10.1093/molbev/msaa191. PMC 7783168. PMID 32781465.