Cuculiformes

The Cuculiformes are represented by a single family, the Cuculidae (cuckoos). The phylogeny is not well founded, and the divergence times are still obscure:


Genus-level timetree of extant Cuculidae, with the distribution of each taxon being indicated by the colour-code used throughout this website (Distribution code).

 

References

Burleigh JG, Kimball RT, and Braun EL (2015), Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 84, 53-63. (abstract) 

Hackett SJ, Kimball RT, Reddy S, Bowie RCK, Braun EL, Braun MJ, Chojnowski JL, Cox WA, Han KL, Harshman J, Huddleston CJ, Marks BD, Miglia KJ, Moore WS, Sheldon FH, Steadman DW, Witt CC, and Yuri T (2008), A phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history, Science 320, 1763-68. (abstract)

Hughes JM (2003), Phylogeny of cooperatively breeding cuckoos (Cuculidae, Crotophaginae) based on mitochondrial gene sequences, Naturwissenschaften 90, 231-233. (abstract)

Hughes JM (2006), Phylogeny of the cuckoo genus Coccyzus (Aves: Cuculidae): A test of monophyly, Syst. Biodiv. 4, 483-488. (abstract)

Johnson KP, Goodman SM, and Lanyon SM (2000), A phylogenetic study of the Malagasy Couas with insights into cuckoo relationships, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 14, 436-444.  (pdf)

Nordén KK, Cooney CR, Babarovic F, and Stoddard MC (2023), Historical contingency influences the diversity of feather nanostructures in cuckoos, bioRxiv . (pdf)

Prum RO, Berv JS, Dornburg A, Field DJ, Townsend JP, Lemmon EM, and Lemmon AR (2015), A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing, Nature 526, 569-57. (abstract)

Qu J, Cong J, Guo C, Hou J, and Shi B (2017), Complete mitochondrial genome of the Greater Coucal, Centropus sinensis (Aves: Cuculiformes), Mitochondrial DNA Part A 28, 311-312. (abstract)

Sorenson MD, and Payne RB (2005), Molecular systematics: cuckoo phylogeny inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences in "The Cuckoos", pp. 68-94 (R.B. Payne, ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. (abstract)

Tian Y, Xu J, Dou L, Zheng A, Qiao L, Xie j, and Zhang X (2021), The complete mitochondrial genome of the Indian Cuckoo Cuculus micropterus (Aves: Cuculiformes), Mitochondrial DNA Part B 6, 2556-58. (pdf)

Wang N, Liang B, Huo J, and Liang W (2016), The complete mitochondrial genome and the phylogenetic position of the Lesser Cuckoo, Cuculus poliocephalus (Aves: Cuculiformes), Mitochondrial DNA Part A 27, 4409-10. (abstract)

 

Photos