taxonID	type	description	language	source
038821183745993EFF219BEAFAA80694.taxon	description	The robust placement of Meleagrididae as sistergroup to the Phasianidae sensu lato in the present work (Fig. 13) opposes inclusion of the family among the enormous complement of other galliforms (reviewed by Sibley & Ahlquist, 1990). The present finding also differs with the indeterminate placement of this distinctive group from most galliforms by Dyke et al. (2003). Dyke et al. (2003: fig. 3) depicted the Megapodiidae and Cracidae as basal, successive sister-groups to the diverse and speciose ‘ Phasianoidea’; the latter group included Numida and Acryllium (Numidinae) as members of a polytomous assemblage immediately basal to Meleagris, Agriocharus, Tetraonidae, and a clade comprising 39 taxa of other galliforms inviting taxonomic subdivision. Most of the large-bodied genera of phasianoids (e. g. Gallus, Phasianus) and the ‘ Old World quail and partridges’ were among a large, basal polytomy of the ‘ phasianoids’ exclusive of the guineafowl (Numidinae). Some of the nodes within this large group, including those resolving Meleagridae and Tetraonidae relative to megapodiid and cracid galliforms, were not sustained by Dyke et al. (2003: fig. 3) in a strict consensus of 1700 MPTs based on 102 characters. Also, the tree inferred here (Fig. 13) departed from those recovered using molecular data (Dimcheff, 2002; Dimcheff, Drovetski & Mindell, 2002). The vast majority of galliform taxa are members of a morphologically conservative group (Holman, 1961), many formerly included among the Perdicidae or Odontophoridae (Sibley & Ahlquist, 1990). These taxa also posed problems of resolution in the present work (Fig. 13), and nodes among these taxa were sufficiently weak as to permit alternative local topologies (i. e. a terminal polytomy). Armstrong, Braun & Kimball (2001) found that mitochondrial and nuclear DNA similarly resolved groupings within a sparse but broad sample of Galliformes. Basal nodes of the latter taxa are broadly consistent with some higher-order topologies (Prager & Wilson, 1976; Helm-Bychowski & Wilson, 1986; Crowe et al., 1992; Kimball et al., 1999; Gutiérrez, Barrowclough & Groth, 2000; Lucchini et al., 2001; Dimcheff et al., 2002; Pereira, Baker & Wajntal, 2002). The single exception among this group (based on included genera) is the strongly supported sister-group relationship between Gallus (Phasianidae) and Numida (Numidinae). The Numidinae were inferred to be the sister-group of the Phasianidae by Kimball et al. (1999) and Pereira & Baker (2006 a).	en	Livezey, Bradley C., Zusi, Richard L. (2007): Higher-order phylogeny of modern birds (Theropoda, Aves: Neornithes) based on comparative anatomy. II. Analysis and discussion. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149 (1): 1-95, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00293.x, URL: https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00293.x
