Telluraves
Telluraves, also known as land birds or core landbirds is a recently defined clade of birds defined by their arboreality. Based on most recent genetic studies, the clade unites a variety of bird groups, including the australavians as well as the afroavians. This grouping was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Accipiter nisus and Passer domesticus". They appear to be the sister group of the Phaethoquornithes.
Based on phylogenetic relationships among lineages of the Afroaves and the Australaves, it has been suggested that the last common ancestor of all Telluraves may have been an apex predator, and possibly also a bird of prey. Other researchers are skeptical of this assessment, citing the herbivorous cariamiform Strigogyps as evidence to the contrary.
Afroaves has not always been recovered as a monophyletic clade in modern molecular phylogenetic studies. For instance, Prum et al. recovered the accipitrimorphs as the sister group to a clade comprising the remaining Afroavian orders and Australaves., while an analysis by Houde et al. recovered a clade of accipitrimorphs and owls as sister to the remaining landbirds. Wu et al. also found recovered and found support the clade of accipitrimorphs and owls, but found the clade to be sister to Australaves, while Coraciimorphae is the sister lineage to all other Telluraves.
The cladogram of the Telluraves shown below is based on the study by Josefin Stiller and collaborators published in 2024. The species numbers are taken from the December 2023 version of the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee. This list includes the Cathartiformes in the order Accipitriformes.