Phoenicopteriformes [SEP] parent taxon
Phoenicopteriformes
Phoenicopteriformes is a group of water birds which comprises flamingos and their extinct relatives.
Flamingos and their relatives are well attested in the fossil record, with the first unequivocal member of the Phoenicopteridae, "Elornis" known from the late Eocene epoch. An extinct family of peculiar "swimming flamingos", the Palaelodidae, are believed to be the closest relatives of the modern flamingos, with the extinct genus "Juncitarsus" slightly more primitive than the group which contains flamingos and grebes (Mirandornithes). The foot and wing
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of