Fowl

Fowl; Temporal range: Late Cretaceous – Holocene,
	Australian brushturkey #1
	Australian brushturkey #2
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Clade:	Pangalloanserae
Superorder:	Galloanserae; Sclater, 1880
Subgroups
	Odontoanserae; Pangalliformes;

Fowl are birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl (Galliformes) and the waterfowl (Anseriformes). It happens that birds in these groups are good to eat, and often hunted by gun. So the word 'fowl' may be used for a game bird. The group is mostly of birds we hunt or farm, and which we eat. Studies of anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close evolutionary relatives. Together, they form the fowl clade, the Galloanserae.^[1] This clade is also supported by morphological and DNA sequence data,^[2] as well as retrotransposon data.^[3]

References

↑ Sibley C, Ahlquist J. & Monroe B. 1988. A classification of the living birds of the world based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies. Auk 105: 409-423.
↑ Chubb A. 2004. New nuclear evidence for the oldest divergence among neognath birds: the phylogenetic utility of ZENK(i). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30: 140-151
↑ Kriegs et al. 2007. Waves of genomic hitchhikers shed light on the evolution of gamebirds (Aves: Galliformes). BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 190 (Fulltext). Archived 2011-11-02 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Sibley C, Ahlquist J. & Monroe B. 1988. A classification of the living birds of the world based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies. Auk 105: 409-423.

[2] Chubb A. 2004. New nuclear evidence for the oldest divergence among neognath birds: the phylogenetic utility of ZENK(i). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30: 140-151

[3] Kriegs et al. 2007. Waves of genomic hitchhikers shed light on the evolution of gamebirds (Aves: Galliformes). BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 190 (Fulltext). Archived 2011-11-02 at the Wayback Machine

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