#neognath

[best-bird-tournament]

Neognath infraclass

Which is the best bird?

Common raven

Willow ptarmigan

Voting ended onApr 9

This is our second-to-last poll! I will be accepting propaganda both in reblogs (@ me to make sure I see it!) and as submissions. Propaganda can be photos, videos, bird facts, bird stories, etc.

[coelophysoid]

Birds of Tehar

Note: Tehar has a taxonomic system somewhat different from the one in OTL. =otl is used to show what OTL clade is equivalent to that clade on Tehar. If =otl is not used, the clades are the same in two timelines.

Birds (Aves, =otl Theropoda) is the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate clade (typically considered a class) on Tehar, with over 13000 species inhabiting the planet's whole surface, except for deep oceans and some caves/subterranean ecosystems. Birds are a relatively young group of animals, having first evolved in Triassic and being closely related to another living class, gryphons (Gryphi, =otl Ornithischia) and an extinct class Anserotitania (=otl Sauropodomorpha), united together in a clade called dragons (Dracones, =otl Dinosauria). They are also more distantly related to suchians (Suchia, =otl Pseudosuchia).

Some characteristic features of birds are their, at least ancestrally, bipedal gait, light pneumatized skeletons and complex breathing system with air sacs inside their bodies; some traits, such as strict oviparity, feathers and endothermy, are shared with other dragons; finally, a common feature for most but the most basal birds today is complex feathers and ability to fly.

Historically, there were many different ways to classify birds, such as splitting birds into Pterygornithes, incorporating all winged birds, and Apterygornithes, incorporating the archaic wingless lineages; or dividing them into Odontognathae (toothed) and Anodontognathae (toothless). Externally, it was pretty well-understood that birds and gryphons are relatives, but what other groups do they have relations with has been a subject of debates for decades. Still, nowadays it is pretty well-known that birds (and gryphons) are suchian relatives, and internally, bird class has been divided into 6 living and many more extinct clades.

The most basal living avian clade is Euapterygornithes (=otl Ceratosauria). Wingless, toothed and long-tailed, these avians have branched off the whole avian tree all the way in the Triassic. Nowadays they are a very diverse group, including animals of different sizes, diets and anatomy, having underwent most of that evolutionary radiation relatively recently in the Paleogene. They inhabit Motutea, Kadalia, Tanah and Uzun.

Somewhat less basal than the euapterygornitheans are the motunuiavians, found predominately at Motunui but also at Motutea. These birds are also wingless, toothed and long-tailed, but they have much more rigid tails and are, in fact, closer to all other living bird groups than they are to euapterygornitheans. There is a relatively little number of their species nowadays, most of them predatory. The ancient ferocious regiavids of Cretaceous Uzun are their close relatives.

Third group of birds, enantiornitheans, is extraordinarily diverse. They have lost long tails and are typically volant, with feathery wings helping them stay in the air. However, they have teeth. After neognaths they are the most diverse birds on Tehar, though differences in their ontogenesis and social behaviour make them less prone to high diversification of species (most enantiornitheans, unlike most neognaths, grow slowly and occupy multiple niches as they age). Enantiornitheans are found worldwide.

The fourth, relatively small, avian group is Noctiraptora. While historically these toothed, volant birds have been considered a peculiar branch of enantiornitheans, they are nowadays seen to be closer to palaeognaths and neognaths and particularly close to an extinct lineage of aquatic Cretaceous birds, Palaeolari (=otl Ichthyornithes). Noctiraptorans are exclusively predatory and volant, and are more diverse at Libya and Uzun than any other continent.

Fifth bird group is small and includes almost exclusively secondarily flightless forms. The palaeognaths are edentulous, typically large and cursorial avians widespread on all continents, except for Motutea and Sagastan. They have some typical archaic features that have made them associated with enantiornitheans sometimes in the past, though nowadays they are well-understood to be neognath relatives.

Finally, the neognaths, the most common and diverse avian group on Tehar, inhabits the whole planet and includes a vast number of toothless, typically volant, birds of all shapes and sizes. From tiny songbirds of Uzun's temperate forests to giant flocks of seabirds at the shores of Qaria to terrifying bearbirds of Hatunwata, most birds on Tehar are neognaths.

Tehar - Taxonomy

Birds of Tehar

[dinosaurs-dinosaurs-dinosaurs]

Teratornis, by Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0