The historical biogeography of terrestrial gamebirds (Aves: Galliformes)

• Main Author: Van der Merwe, Vincent Charl
• Other Authors: Crowe, Timothy M
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2015
• Subjects: Conservation Biology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12636

Includes bibliographical references (p.36-44). === Whilst the phylogenetic relations of gamebirds are now well understood, there is a great lack of consensus on their biogeographical relationships. It has been suggested that the basal galliform clades, namely the megapodes from Australasia and the cracids from South and Central America, have their origins in the northern hemisphere and have colonised the southern hemisphere more recently. Those in favour of a Northern Hemisphere origin suggest that stem galliforms originated only after the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event.