Galliformes

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Galliformes
Temporal range:
Ma
[1][full citation needed]
Possible earlier origin based on molecular clock[2]
Clockwise from top left: Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar), Gunnison grouse (Centrocercus minimus), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), great curassow (Crax rubra), helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Pangalliformes
Order: Galliformes
Temminck, 1820
Extant families
Synonyms

Phasianiformes

Galliformes /ˌɡælɪˈfɔːrmiːz/ is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often reared by humans for their meat and eggs, or hunted as game birds.

The order contains about 290 

Megapodiidae (incubator birds like malleefowl and brush-turkeys). They adapt to most environments except for innermost deserts
and perpetual ice.

Many gallinaceous species are skilled runners and escape predators by running rather than flying. Males of most species are more colorful than the females, with often elaborate courtship behaviors that include strutting, fluffing of tail or head feathers, and vocal sounds. They are mainly nonmigratory. Several species have been

domesticated
during their long and extensive relationships with humans.

The name galliformes derives from "gallus", Latin for "rooster". Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds, or galliforms. Galliforms and waterfowl (order Anseriformes) are collectively called fowl.

Systematics and evolution

Despite its distinct appearance, the wild turkey is actually a very close relative of pheasants

The living Galliformes were once divided into seven or more

Meleagrididae as subfamilies.[3]

The

monophyletic
groups.

Historically, the

monotypic
order Opisthocomiformes to signify this.

The fossil record for the Galliformes is incomplete.[5]

Galliformes

Megapodiidae – megapodes (21 species)

Cracidae – chachalacas, curassows, guans (56 species)

Numididae – guineafowl (6 species)

Odontophoridae – New World quail (34 species)

Phasianidae – pheasants & allies (184 species)

Phylogeny of the Galliformes based a study by De Chen and collaborators published in 2021.
Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union.[7]

Evolution

K-T Event, that killed off the rest of the dinosaurs. The dominant birds of the dinosaur era were the enantiornithes, toothed birds that dominated the trees and skies. Unlike those enantiornithes, the ancestors of the galliformes were a niche group that were toothless and ground-dwelling. When the asteroid impact killed off all non-avian dinosaurs, and the dominant birds, it destroyed all creatures that lived in trees and on open ground. The enantiornithes were wiped out, but the ancestors of galliformes were small and lived in the ground (unlike water for Anseriformes) which protected them from the blast and destruction.[8]

basal lineages of galliforms.[10]

Additional galliform-like pangalliformes are represented by

extinct families from the Paleogene, namely the Gallinuloididae, Paraortygidae and Quercymegapodiidae. In the early Cenozoic
, some additional birds may or may not be early Galliformes, though even if they are, they are unlikely to belong to extant families:

  • †Argillipes (London Clay Early Eocene of England)
  • †Coturnipes (Early Eocene of England, and Virginia, USA?)
  • †Palaeophasianus (Willwood Early Eocene of Bighorn County, USA)
  • †Percolinus (London Clay Early Eocene of England)
  • †
    Amitabha
     (Bridger middle Eocene of Forbidden City, USA) – phasianid?
  • †"Palaeorallus" alienus (middle Oligocene of Tatal-Gol, Mongolia)
  • †Anisolornis (Santa Cruz Middle Miocene of Karaihen, Argentina)

From the mid-

Early Eocene origin but might even be as old as the Late Cretaceous. The ichnotaxon Tristraguloolithus cracioides is based on fossil eggshell fragments from the Late Cretaceous Oldman Formation of southern Alberta, Canada, which are similar to chachalaca eggs,[11] but in the absence of bone material, their relationships cannot be determined except that they are apparently avian
in origin.

Modern genera of phasianids start appearing around the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, roughly 25–20 Mya. It is not well known whether the living genera of the other, older, galliform families originated around the same time or earlier, though at least in the New World quail, pre-Neogene forms seem to belong to genera that became entirely extinct later on.

A number of Paleogene to mid-Neogene fossils are quite certainly Galliformes, but their exact relationships in the order cannot be determined:

  • †Galliformes gen. et sp. indet. (Oligocene) – formerly in Gallinuloides; phasianid?[12]
  • †Palaealectoris (Agate Fossil Beds Early Miocene of Sioux County, USA) – tetraonine?

List of major taxa

See also: List of Galliformes

For a long time, the pheasants, partridges, and relatives were indiscriminately lumped in the Phasianidae, variously including or excluding turkeys, grouse, New World quail, and guineafowl, and divided into two

phylogeny of the Phasianidae has resisted complete resolution.[13]

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
, Paris

A tentative list of the higher-level galliform

taxa, listed in evolutionary sequence, is:[13][14]

The relationships of many pheasants and partridges were formerly very badly resolved and much confounded by

International Ornithological Congress.[14][17][18]

The partridge of

Pucrasia, and Tragopan.[19] In 2021, Kimball et al. found it to belong to the subfamily Phasianini, alongside the true pheasants.[18]

Phylogeny

Living Galliformes based on the work by John Boyd.[20]

Description

apomorphic
gamefowl

As their name suggests they are chicken-like in appearance, with rounded bodies and blunt wings, and range in size from small at 15 cm (6 inches) to large at 120 cm (4 feet). They are mainly terrestrial birds and their wings are short and rounded for short-distance flight. Galliforms are

anisodactyl like passerines
, but some of the adult males grow spurs that point backwards.

Gallinaceous birds are arboreal or terrestrial animals; many prefer not to fly, but instead walk and run for locomotion. They live 5–8 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity.[citation needed] They can be found worldwide and in a variety of habitats, including forests, deserts, and grasslands. They use visual displays and vocalizations for communication, courtship, fighting, territoriality, and brooding.

They have diverse mating strategies: some are monogamous, while others are

polygynandrous
. Male courtship behavior includes elaborate visual displays of plumage. They breed seasonally in accordance with the climate and lay three to 16 eggs per year in nests built on the ground or in trees.

Gallinaceous birds feed on a variety of plant and animal material, which may include fruits, seeds, leaves, shoots, flowers, tubers, roots, insects, snails, worms, lizards, snakes, small rodents, and eggs.

These birds vary in size from the diminutive king quail (Coturnix chinensis) (5 in) long and weighing 28–40 g (1–1.4 oz) to the largest extant galliform species, the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), which may weigh as much as 14 kg (30.5 lb) and may exceed 120 cm (47 in).

The galliform bird species with the largest wingspan and largest overall length (including a train of over 6 feet) is most likely the

genera are plump-bodied with thick necks and moderately long legs, with rounded and rather short wings. Grouse, pheasants, francolins, and partridges
are typical in their outwardly corpulent silhouettes.

Adult males of many galliform birds have one to several sharp horny spurs on the back of each leg, which they use for fighting. In several lineages, pronounced sexual dimorphism occurs, and among each galliform clade, the more apomorphic ("advanced") lineages tend to be more sexually dimorphic.

Flightlessness

While most galliformes are rather reluctant flyers, truly flightless forms are unknown among the extant members of the order. Though they are often mischaracterised as weak-flying, Galliformes are actually highly specialised for their particular flight style, bearing extremely powerful flight muscles, and some species are even migratory.[21] Adult snowcocks are, however, flightless, requiring gravity to launch, although juveniles can still fly relatively well.[22]

Nonetheless, a few birds outside the Galliforme crown-group did produce flightlessness.

The genus

extinct species of New Caledonia, was flightless, but as opposed to most other flightless birds like ratites or island rails which become flightless due to arrested development of their flight apparatus and subsequently evolve
to larger size, Sylviornis seems to have become flightless simply due to its bulk, with the wing reduction following a consequence, not the reason for its flightlessness.

The gigantic Australian

mihirungs, which may be closer to Galliformes than to Anseriformes as traditionally expected,[23]
achieved flightlessness more traditionally, strongly reducing their wings and keel. They were massive herbivorous birds, among the largest avian dinosaurs of all time.

By contrast, the stem-galliform Scopelortyx appears to have been more aerial than modern fowl, with a flight style more suited for gliding and soaring.[24]

Behaviour and ecology

Most of the galliform birds are more or less resident, but some of the smaller

Crossoptilon
) — are all notable for their daily excursions on foot which may take them many miles in a given day.

Some Galliformes are adapted to grassland habitat, and these genera are remarkable for their long, thin necks, long legs, and large, wide wings. Fairly unrelated species like the crested fireback (Lophura ignita), vulturine guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum), and malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) are outwardly similar in their body types (see also convergent evolution).

Most species that show only limited sexual dimorphism are notable for the great amount of locomotion required to find food throughout the majority of the year. Those species that are highly sedentary but with marked ecological transformations over seasons exhibit marked distinct differences between the sexes in size and/or appearance. Eared-pheasants, guineafowl, toothed quail, and the snow partridge (Lerwa lerwa) are examples of limited sexual differences and requirements for traveling over wide terrain to forage.

Winter ecology

Gallinaceous birds are well adapted to regions with cold winters. Their larger size, increased plumage, and lower activity levels help them to withstand the cold and conserve energy. Under such conditions, they are able to change their feeding strategy to that of a ruminant. This allows them to feed on and extract energy and nutrients from coarse, fibrous plant material, such as buds, twigs, and conifer needles. This provides a virtually unlimited source of accessible food and requires little energy to harvest.

Food and feeding

Flock of adult and young helmeted guineafowl foraging

omnivorous galliforms, forming the majority of the group, are typically stoutly built and have short, thick bills primarily adapted for foraging on the ground for rootlets or the consumption of other plant material such as heather
shoots. The young birds will also take insects.

rodents
.

Typical peafowl (Pavo), most of the

wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) have a diet primarily of vegetation, they will eat insects, mice, lizards, and amphibians, wading in water to hunt for the latter. Domestic hens
(Gallus domesticus) share this opportunistic behaviour and will eat insects, mice, worms, and amphibians.

During mating season, the male western capercaillie feeds mainly on bilberry leaves, which are toxic to most herbivores

The tragopans (

tree canopies, especially during the snowy and rainy periods when foraging on the ground is dangerous and less than fruitful for a variety of reasons. Although members of the genus Syrmaticus are capable of subsisting almost entirely on vegetarian materials for months at a time, this is not true for many of the subtropical genera. For example, the great argus (Argusianus argus) and crested argus may do most of their foraging during rainy months in the canopy of the jungle, as well. There they are known to forage on slugs, snails, ants, and amphibians
to the exclusion of plant material. How they forage in the forest canopy during the rainy months is unknown.

Reproduction

Most galliforms are very prolific, with clutches regularly exceeding 10 eggs in many species. In contrast to most birds which are – at least for a particular breeding season – monogamous, galliforms are often polygynous or polygamous. Such species can be recognized by their pronounced sexual dimorphism.

Galliform young are very

incubation to mounds of rotting vegetation, volcanic
ash, or hot sand. The young must dig out of the nest mounds after hatching, but they emerge from the eggs fully feathered, and upon leaving the mound, they are able to fly considerable distances.

Common species

See also: List of Galliformes by population

Grouse and ptarmigans - Family Tetraonidae

Grouse, ptarmigans, and prairie chickens are all chicken-like birds with short, curved, strong bills, part of the family Tetraonidae. This group includes 25 species residing mostly in North America. They are mainly ground-dwellers and have short, rounded wings for brief flights. They are well adapted to winter by growing feather "snowshoes" on their feet and roosting beneath the snow. They range in size from the 13-inch (33 cm) white-tailed ptarmigan to the 28-inch (71 cm) sage grouse. Their plumage is dense and soft and is most commonly found in shades of red, brown, and gray to camouflage to the ground. They are polygamous and male courtship behavior includes strutting and dancing and aggressive fighting for possession of females. The typical clutch size is between seven and 12 eggs.

Turkeys - Family Meleagrididae

Turkeys are large, long-legged birds that can grow up to 4 feet (1.2 m) in height and weigh up to 30 pounds (14 kg) in the wild. They have a long, broad, rounded tail with 14–19 blunt feathers. They have a naked, wrinkled head and feathered body. The North American wild turkey – Meleagris gallopavo – has five distinct subspecies (Eastern, Rio Grande, Florida [Osceola], Merriam's, and Gould's). Hybrids also exist where the ranges of these subspecies overlap. All are native only to North America, though transplanted populations exist elsewhere. Their plumage differs slightly by subspecies, but is generally dark to black for males, with buff to cream highlights, and generally drab brown for females. The feathers are quite iridescent and can take on distinct reddish/copper hues in sunlight. Their feathers are well defined with broad, square ends, giving the bird the appearance of being covered in scales. Males have a "beard" of coarse black bristles hanging from the center of their upper breasts and tend to have more vibrantly colored plumage than do females. They breed in the spring and their typical clutch size is between 10 and 12 eggs. The ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), a different species of turkey, currently exists only in a portion of the Yucatán peninsula. After the 19th and early 20th centuries, wild turkey populations dropped significantly because of hunting and habitat loss. However, populations now flourish again due to hunting management and transplanting. The ocellated turkey, not commonly hunted, is currently threatened due to ongoing habitat loss in the Yucutan.

Pheasants, quail, and partridges - Family Phasianidae

The family is divided into four groups: 30 species of new world quail, residing between Paraguay and Canada, 11 species of Old World quail in Africa, Australia, and Asia, 94 species of partridges, and 48 species of pheasants. This family includes a wide range of bird sizes from a 5+1⁄2 inches (14 cm) quail to pheasants up to almost 30 inches (76 cm). Pheasants and quail have heavy, round bodies and rounded wings. Though they have short legs, they are very fast runners when escaping predators.

Chachalacas - Family Cracidae

Chachalacas are found in the chaparral ecosystems from southern Texas through Mexico and Costa Rica. They are mainly arboreal and make their nests in trees 5 to 15 feet (1.5 to 4.6 m) above the ground. They are large, long-legged birds that can grow up to 26 inches (66 cm) long. They have long tails and are chicken-like in appearance. Their frail-looking yet sturdy nests are made of sticks and leaves. Their clutch size is three or four eggs. The males make a unique, loud, mating call
that give them their name. Chachalacas feed mainly on berries, but also eat insects. They are a popular game bird, as their flesh is good to eat. They are also commonly domesticated as pets.

References

  1. ^ Mourer-Chauviré; et al. (2013). "A new taxon of stem group Galliformes and the earliest record for stem group Cuculidae from the Eocene of Djebel Chambi, Tunisia" (PDF). Proceed. 8th Inter Nat. Meeting Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2023.
  2. PMID 32781465
    .
  3. ^ Kimball et al. (1999), Dyke et al. (2003), Smith et al. (2005), Crowe et al. (2006a,b)
  4. ^ Smith et al. (2005), Crowe et al. (2006a,b)
  5. ISBN 9781861892935
    .
  6. PMID 34809586
    .
  7. Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Pheasants, partridges, francolins"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  8. ^ Quaillike creatures were the only birds to survive the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact
  9. ^ Clarke (2004)
  10. ^ Agnolin et al. (2006)
  11. ^ Zelenitsky et al. (1996)
  12. ^ Specimen MCZ 342506. A proximal humerus of a bird larger than Gallinuloides: Mayr & Weidig (2004)
  13. ^ a b Kimball et al. (1999, 2001), Crowe et al. (2006a,b)
  14. ^ a b "Taxonomic Updates – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  15. ^ Dyke et al. (2003)
  16. ^ See e.g. the phylogenies in Kimball et al. (2006) and Crowe et al. (2006a,b)
  17. S2CID 231963063
    .
  18. ^ a b "Galliformes". bird-phylogeny (in German). Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  19. ^ Kimball et al. (1999, 2001), Smith et al. (2005), Crowe et al. (2006a,b)
  20. ^ John Boyd's website [1] Boyd, John (2007). "GALLIFORMES- Landfowl". Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  21. ^ Gary W. Kaiser, The Inner Bird: Anatomy and Evolution Paperback – 1 Feb 2008
  22. ISBN 9780713639667
    .
  23. ^ Worthy, T., Mitri, M., Handley, W., Lee, M., Anderson, A., Sand, C. 2016. Osteology supports a steam-galliform affinity for the giant extinct flightless birds Sylviornis neocaledoniae (Sylviornithidae, Galloanseres). PLOS ONE. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150871
  24. S2CID 16336177
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Galliformes.
Wikisource has the text of a 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article about Galliformes.
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