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Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata | Taxonomy 6
[By Chuck Almdale]
After our brief sidestep into the wonderful world of cladistics, we’re ready to move onward into our own Phylum of Chordata; all are animals with a notochord and most of them have vertebrae like us. To make the following lengthy sequence a bit more clear, I’m using my own invention, mentioned at the end of the prior posting: each taxon begins with Clade subnumber in bold. Each subsidiary taxon is indented and the subnumber increased; equivalent clade ranks have the same indention and same subnumber but different names. There can be significant vertical distance in the sequence between such equivalent clades [watch out for Clade21] when they indicate major evolutionary splits with many descendant species. There are over sixty taxonomic ranks in this posting. To save horizontal space and avoid excessive word-wrapping, we will move the indenting back to the left margin three times (which of course interferes with the desired goal of “equivalent clade ranks have the same indentation”).
I have inserted into the sequence occasional comments indicating a major division in lineages: e.g. “The Two Crown groups of Clade26 Sauria: Clade27 Lepidosauromorpha (Tuatara, lizards, snakes), Clade27 Archelosauria (Turtles, Crocodiles, Birds).” Those closely reading the sequence would see these divisions without this alert, but it may be helpful for the rest of us.
In the rest of this post there are a lot of clades with the comment “extinct branches….” These represent the taxon containing the crown group leading to extant species as well as all sister taxa leading only to extinct species. When you want to trace the exact lineages, including both extant and extinct species, you need all these ranks, and it is exactly these ranks which were necessitated by the development of molecular clocks. By the time we reach Class Aves we’ll be at Clade62, and we will have completely overwhelmed the ability of the Linnaean Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order sequence to encompass it all. Clade ranks may eventually number into the hundreds, perhaps thousands for the insects, as every ancestor of every living organism came into existence through the process of speciation, which begins with one lineage evolving into two differentiating branches. Even as I write there is probably someone somewhere “doing the math,” or some variant of 210 = 1,024.
But first there’s a significant series of nesting clades (Domain Eukaryota) above our own phylum. As a reminder of how we got here, we’ll begin with all the taxonomic ranks we’ve gone through to get to Superphylum Deuterostomia and our own Phylum Chordata. As we move through the ranks following Ambulacraria we’ll mention all the closely associated phyla and classes along the way, Echinodermata (starfish, etc.), Agnatha (jawless fishes) and the like.
Clade1 Domain Eukaryota: Have membrane-bound nucleus and organelles.
Clade2 Kingdom Animalia: 760 mya; multicellular, motile oxygen-breathing, sexually reproducing heterotrophs with muscle cells.
Clade3 Subkingdom Eumetazoa: Sister taxon to sponges, containing Comb Jellies & Planula.
Clade4 ParaHoxozoa (Planulozoa): 680 mya split between Cnidaria and Bilaterians.
Clade5 Infrakingdom Bilateria: Left and right sides are mirror images during embryonic development, most remain bilateral into adulthood.
Clade6 Superphylum Deuterostomia: Translation “mouth second”. During embryonic development the anus formed before the mouth. Examples: echinoderms, hemichordates, chordates. Wikipedia: Deuterostome
Clade7 Ambulacraria: Echinodermates and Hemichordates; sister taxon to the Chordates.
Clade8 Phylum Echinodermata – Starfish, urchins, sea cucumbers, sea lilies. Translation: “hedgehog + skin.” All are bilaterally symmetrical as larvae, but most have a five-pointed radial symmetry as adults. Sea floor dwellers worldwide from the tidal zone to the deepest abysses. Appeared at start of Cambrian era 540 mya, 7,600 described extant species. Wikipedia: Echinoderm 
Extant and extinct echinoderms in six classes clockwise from upper left: Fromia indica (Sea Stars); Ophiocoma scolopendrina (Brittle Stars); Stomopneustes variolaris (Sea Urchins); Ctenocystoidea (extinct clade); Actinopyga echinites (Sea Cucumbers); Oxycomanthus bennetti (Crinoids ). Wikipedia: Echinoderm
Clade8 Phylum Hemichordata – Acorn worms. Translation “half + string.” Solitary worm-shaped organisms; generally live in burrows (the earliest secreted tubes) in the deep sea and are deposit feeders. About 130 described species. Wikipedia: Hemichordate 
Acorn worm (or Enteropneusta).
Photo: Necrophorus. Wikipedia: Hemichordate
Clade7 Phylum Chordata – Chordates: Translation “having a string (nerve chord).” Sister taxon to Ambulacraria. At some time during their larval or adult states, Chordates possess: a notochord (elastic rod-like longitudinal structure); a hollow dorsal nerve cord; either an endostyle (organ in the throat used for filter-feeding) or a thyroid (two-lobed endocrine gland in the neck); pharyngeal slits (filter-feeding organs in slits behind the mouth); and a post-anal tail. They also have a coelom (main body cavity enclosing all organs), a closed circulatory system, and exhibit metameric segmentation (a linear series of body segments fundamentally similar – but not entirely alike – in structure that often perform special functions). With over 81,000 species, Chordata is the third-largest animal phylum behind Arthropoda and Mollusca, and includes fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. As both Class Aves (birds) and Class Primata (including humans) are in this phylum, we will briefly list the other chordate classes, our closest relatives on Planet Earth. Wikipedia: Chordate 
Cordates clockwise from upper left: Lancelet, Tunicate, Tiger, Shark. Wikipedia: Chordate
The Three Subphyla of Clade7 Phylum Chordata: Cephalochordata, Tunicata, Craniata
Clade8 Subphylum Cephalochordata – Translation “head cords.” This small subphylum is a sister clade to the far larger clade of Olfactores.
Clade9 Class Leptocardii – Lancelets: These are fish-like filter feeders first appearing during the Precambrian period more than 540 million years ago, with 30-35 species extant, burrowers in the sea floor. Their gill-slits are used only for feeding, not respiration; their blood carries nutrients but has no oxygen-carrying red blood cells. They are either male or female and breed by spawning.
Lancelet anatomy. Washington State University: Lancelet
Clade8 Olfactores: Translation “smellers.” Sister taxon to Subphylum Cephalochordata. All chordates other than the Lancelets are in this clade.
Clade9 Subphylum Tunicata – Tunicates, 3 classes: Translation “having a tunic, (rubbery) outer coat.” 3,000 species, mostly in shallow water. Their body is a water-filled sac with two siphons (tubular openings) through which they intake and expel water for feeding and respiration. There are three Classes:
Class Ascidiacea (Sea Squirts) which are sessile, 5,500 known species.
Class Thaliacea (Salps) which are free floating, with 72 known solitary and colonial species.
Class Appendicularia (Larvaceans) free-swimming filter-feeders which look like tadpoles, 0.079 to 3.9 in. long, from near surface to 2 miles deep, 70 species known. Wikipedia: Tunicate 
Bluebell Tunicate, Clavelina moluccensis, Class Ascidiacea.
Photo: Nhobgood. Wikipedia: Tunicate
Clade9 Subphylum Craniata (Vertebrata) – Vertebrates: Translation “jointed spine.” Sister taxon to Subphylum Tunicata. The rest of the Chordata phylum which have internal spinal bones, 70,000 described species. Wikipedia: Craniate
The Two Infraphyla of Clade9 Subphylum Craniata (Vertebrata): Clade10 Infraphylum Agnatha, Clade10 Infraphylum Gnathostomata
Clade10 Infraphylum (or Superclass) Agnatha – Jawless fishes. Translation “no jaw.” Sister taxon to Infraphylum Gnathostomata. The Agnatha appeared during the Cambrian Period (540-485 MYA), with two classes still extant.
Class (or Infraclass) Hyperoartia – Lamprey: 38 species of eel-like fish with a toothed funnel-like sucking mouth, living in temperate coastal and fresh water.
Adult pacific lamprey with sharp teeth clearly visible.
Photo: Dave Herasimtschuk, US Fish & Wildlife Service. Wikipedia: Agnatha
Class (or Infraclass) Myxini – Hagfish: They have narrow bodies (1.6-50 in. long) that look like worms; paddle-like tails; naked, often pinkish, skin that fits like a loose sock; cartilaginous skulls, “teeth” of keratin, unlensed eyespots, and can exude copious quantities of a milky and fibrous slime; 76 known species. Wikipedia: Agnatha 
Sixgill Hagfish (Eptatretus hexatrema), False Bay, South Africa.
Photo: Peter Southwood. Wikipedia: Agnatha
Clade10 Infraphylum Gnathostomata – Translation “jaw + mouth.” Sister taxon to Infraphylum Agnatha. All remaining chordates and vertebrates have jaws. Wikipedia: Gnathostomata
The Two Clades of Clade10 Infraphylum Gnathostomata (Jawed Fish): Clade11 Class Chondrichtyes, Clade11 Superclass Osteichthyes
Clade11 Class Chondrichthyes – Cartilaginous Fish: Translation “cartilage + fish.” Sister taxon to Superclass Osteichthyes. Sharks, rays, skates, sawfish and ghost sharks, all have skeletons of cartilage rather than bone. They also have placoid (tooth shaped) scales and lack swim bladders. Range from 3.9 in. to 33 ft. long. Fertilization is internal, birth may be live or by egg depending on species. Worldwide over 1,280 known species. Wikipedia: Chondrichthyes 
Cartilaginous Fish clockwise from upper left: Great White Shark, Manta Ray, Spotted Ratfish, Belantsea montana (extinct 350 mya).
Photo: Prehistoricplanes. Wikipedia: Chondrichthyes
Osteichthyes (below) was long considered a class, along with Amphibia, Aves, Mammalia and Reptilia. Recently it was kicked upstairs to superclass, and the four non-fish classes were placed within it. As all these following clades evolved from that ancestral jawed bony fish, this makes sense, although most people don’t like thinking that their distant ancestor’s claim to fame consists of having bones and a jaw.
Clade11 Superclass Osteichthyes – Bony fish: Translation “bone + fish.” Sister taxon to Class Chondrichthyes. This is the largest class of vertebrates, with endoskeletons made of bone, comprising 45 orders, over 435 families and 30,000 species. Gills filter dissolved oxygen from the water, a swim bladder controls buoyancy to keep from sinking. As superclass Osteichthyes now contains classes Amphibia, Aves, Mammalia and Reptilia, it’s a bit confusing to dwell on this superclass’s characteristics pertaining only to fish, but that’s what you’ll find when you look at more than a single website discussing this. Nevertheless, we continue. Wikipedia: Osteichthyes
The Two Clades of Clade11 Superclass Osteichthyes (Bony Fish): Clade12 Actinopterygii, Clade12 Sarcopterygii
Clade12 Class Actinopterygii – Ray-finned fishes: Translation “having rays + wing, fins.” Sister taxon to Sarcopterygii. Their lightly-built fins resembling folded fans are made of webbings of skin supported by radially extended thin bony spines. The fins can easily change shape and provide superior thrust; the rays attach directly to the skeleton. 99% of the over 32,000 actinopterygian fish are teleosts, which have a movable premaxilla in their jaw, which enables them to protrude their jaws outward to grab prey and pull it in. Wikipedia: Actinopterygii 
Ray-finned Fishes L-R top-bottom. Top row: Red-bellied Piranha, Spotted Lionfish, Northern Pike; Row 2: Sockeye Salmon, Humpback Anglerfish, Slender- spined Porcupine Fish; Row 3: Peacock Flounder, Japanese Pineconefish, Leafy Seadragon. Wikipedia: Actinopterygii
Clade12 Clade (previously Class or Subclass) Sarcopterygii – Lobe-finned fish. Translation “flesh + wing, fin.” As Osteichthyes has been raised to superclass, Sarcopterygii has been raised to Clade, as it now includes all tetrapods. [Yes, humans are now a form of four-legged lobe-finned fish. So are birds.] Sister taxon to Class Actinopterygii. These organisms – perhaps I should say “we” – are characterized by prominent muscular lobes (limb buds formed early in embryonic development within their fins, which are supported by articulated appendicular (arm and leg) skeletons. Wikipedia: Sarcopterygii
The Two Clades of Clade12 Sarcopterygii (Lobe-finned Fish): Clade13 Actinistia, Clade13 Rhipidistia
Clade13 Class Actinistia – Crown group Coelacanthiformes and extinct branches. Sister taxon to Rhipidistia.
Clade14 Order Coelacanthiformes –Coelacanths: Translation “hollow + spine,” referring to the tail fin. – The two lobe-fined species – recently discovered “living fossils,” thought to be extinct 66 million years ago – are located here, along with some extinct species. Wikipedia: Coelacanth 
Live coelacanth seen off coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 2019.
Wikipedia: Coelacanth
Clade13 Rhipidistia (Dipnotetrapodomorpha): Translation “small + bellows.” Combines the next two clades of Lungfish and Tetrapods. Sister taxon to Actinistia. Wikipedia: Rhipidistia
The Two Clades of Clade13 Rhipidistia: Clade14 Dipnomorpha (Lungfish), Clade14 Infraclass Tetrapodomorpha
Clade14 Dipnomorpha, Class15 Dipnoi – Lungfish: Translation “double + breath.” The six species of lungfish, found in Africa, South America and Australia, can breathe through gills or lungs. They have lobed fins and well-developed skeletons and are considered the closest living relatives to the tetrapods. Sister taxon to Tetrapodomorpha. Wikipedia: Lungfish 
Neoceratodus forsteri (Australian lungfish), Canberra, Australia.
Photo: Mitch Ames. Wikipedia: Lungfish
Clade14 Infraclass Tetrapodomorpha – Extinct branches only
Clade15 Eotetrapodiformes – Extinct branches only
Clade16 Elpistostegalia – Extinct branches only
Clade17 Stegocephali – Extinct branches only
Clade18 Superclass Tetrapoda – four-limbed vertebrates: Translation “four + foot.” Intervening clades 14-17 peeled off four groups of extinct fish. Evolutionary speaking, all the tetrapods evolved through the Sarcopterygii (now a clade, previously a subclass) line. It made no sense to have a superclass part of a subclass which is two ranks lower on the taxonomic scale – thus the switch to “clade” for Sarcopterygii. This classification below follows Benton 2004. There are over 35,100 described tetrapodal species in the following four classes of Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves and Mammalia. Wikipedia: Tetrapod
The Two Clades of Clade18 Superclass Tetrapoda (Four-limbed Vertebrates): Clade19 Class Amphibia, Clade19 Reptiliomorpha
Clade19 Class Amphibia – Amphibians: Translation “double + life.” Amphibians are ectothermic (“cold-blooded”), anamniotic [lack the three extraembryonic membranes: amnion (protection), chorion (gas exchange) and allantois (waste disposal)]. Most are semiaquatic, start as aquatic larvae (tadpoles) with gills, then become lung breathers. All 8,100 extant species are in subclass Lissamphibia: frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians. Sister taxon to Reptiliomorpha. Wikipedia: Amphibian
Gaboon Caecilian (Geotrypetes seraphini), an amphibian; reduced eyes, nostrils, small tentacles below the nostrils.
Photo: Marius Burger. Wikipedia: Caecilian
Clade19 Reptiliomorpha (or Pan-Amniota): Translation “reptile + shape.” The sister taxon to Class Amphibia, defined in 2020 by Laurin and Reisz (2020) as the largest total clade that contains Homo sapiens, but not Pipa pipa (Star-fingered Toad), Caecilia tentaculata (a caecilian or serpentine amphibian), and Siren lacertina (Greater Siren amphibian). It consists of amniotes (see immediately above and below) and a few closely related extinct tetrapods. Wikipedia: Reptiliomorpha
The Crown Group Clade of Clade Reptiliomorpha: Amniotes
Clade20 Amniota (or Class Reptilia) – Amniotes: They have three extraembryonic membranes: amnion (protection), chorion (gas exchange) and allantois (waste disposal); this clade includes reptiles, birds and mammals. Wikipedia: Amniote
The Two Clades of Clade20 Amniota (Crown Group Amniotes): Clade21 Sauropsida, Clade21 Synapsida
Following Clade20 Amniota (or Class Reptilia) there is a major lineage division.
Clade21 Synapsida heads towards the mammals.
Clade21 Sauropsida heads towards lizards, snakes, crocodiles and birds. For the rest of this posting we’ll follow the Sauropsida line. In the next posting we’ll begin again at this juncture and follow the Synapsida line towards the mammals.
It took us twenty-one taxonomic ranks from Clade1 Domain Eukaryota to sister taxon Clades21 Sauropsida and Clade21 Synapsida. It will take another forty-one steps to get to Clade62 Class Aves. In this posting we won’t be counting how much farther it is to get to an individual bird species such as Passer domesticus; we’ll leave that for later. If nothing else, you’ll have a good understanding why cladistics has caught on so quickly. Notice that following this point we’re re-starting the indentation of taxonomic ranks back at the left margin.
Clade21 Sauropsida – Lizards, snakes, turtles, crocodiles, tyrannosaurs, pterosaurs, birds. Translation “lizard + face.” A clade broadly equivalent to Class Reptilia, used to include extinct stem-group relatives of modern reptiles and birds (which, as theropod dinosaurs, are nested within reptiles as they are more closely related to crocodilians than to lizards or turtles). Wikipedia: Sauropsida
Clade22 Eureptilia – Crown group reptiles & extinct branches.
Clade23 Romeriida – Crown group reptiles & extinct branches.
Clade24 Diapsida – Crown group reptiles & extinct branches.
Clade25 Neodiapsida – Crown group reptiles & extinct branches.
Clade26 Sauria (or Ankylopoda) – Extinct branches and last common ancestor of lizards, turtles, crocodiles and birds. Wikipedia: Sauria 
Saurian Crown Group: Clockwise from top left: Copperhead Snake, White-faced Buffalo-Weaver, various extinct ornithischian dinosaurs, Green Sea Turtle, Anurognathus (an extinct pterosaur), American Alligator.
Collage: Kiwi Rex. Wikipedia: Sauria
The Two Crown groups of Clade26 Sauria: Clade27 Lepidosauromorpha (Tuatara, lizards, snakes), Clade27 Archelosauria (Turtles, Crocodiles, Birds)
Clade27 Lepidosauromorpha (or Pan-Lepidosauria) – Crown group lizards & extinct branches. Sister taxon to Archelosauria.
Clade28 Superorder Lepidosauria – Translation “scaled + lizard.” Within Superorder Lepidosauria are two clade-orders.
Clade29 Order Rhynchocephalia – Translation “beak + heads.” This order was very diverse a mere 240 mya but now contains only one species, the Tuatara of New Zealand, which has a functioning 3rd eye on the top of its head, not for vision, probably for endocrine system daylight sensing. 
Henry, at 111 the world’s oldest Tuatara in captivity and still reproductively active, at Invercargill, New Zealand. Photo: KeresH. Wikipedia: Tuatara
Clade29 Order Squamata – Lizards & Snakes. Contains all other lizards (over 7,100 known species) and snakes. Skin of horny scales which periodically molt. Movable quadrate bones allows both jaws to move relative to the rest of the skull. Sister taxon to Rhynchocephalia. Wikipedia: Squamata
Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus) from Yemen.
Photo: Kupos. Wikipedia: Chameleon
Clade30 Suborder Serpentes – Snakes. (over 3,900 known species). Schema follows Lee 2013. 
Coast Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans terrestris), California.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson. Wikipedia: Ophidia
Clade27 Clade Archelosauria (or Archosauromorpha) Sister taxon to Lepidosauromorpha.
The Two Crown groups of Clade27 Archelosauria: Clade28 Pantestudines (Turtles), Clade28 Pan-Archosauria (Crocodiles, Birds)
Clade28 Pantestudines – Crown group turtles and extinct branches; sister taxon to Pan-Archosauria.
Clade29 Testudinata – Crown group turtles and extinct branches.
Clade30 Mesochelydia – Crown group turtles and extinct branches.
Clade31 Perichelydia – Crown group turtles and extinct branches.
Order32 Testudines – Turtles. Turtle shells, made mostly of bone, grow from their ribs, their outer surface is covered with scales made of keratin (as with hair, horns and claws). There are two divisions:
Clade33 Suborder Cryptodira –Found worldwide, 246 extant species which pull their neck straight back between their front legs. Wikipedia: Cryptodira 
Indian Flapshell Turtle, Lissemys punctata, Bangalore; a highly advanced eucryptodire. Photo: L. Shyamal. Wikipedia: Cryptodira
Clade33 Suborder Pleurodira – 43 extant species found in the southern hemisphere which bend their head sideways into a space in front of one of the front legs. This schema follows Lee 2013. Wikipedia: Pleurodira 
Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle (Podocnemis unifilis), showing Pleurodira head retraction. Photo: Pierre Fidenci. Wikipedia: Pleurodira
At this point the clades are excessively word-wrapping, so we’re moving back to the left margin again and reducing indenting to one space per rank change.
Clade28 Pan-Archosauria – Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches. Sister taxon to Pantestudines.
Clade29 Archosauromorpha (may be = Crocopoda) Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches.
Clade30 Crocopoda – Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches.
Clade31 Archosauriformes – Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches.
Clade32 Eucrocopoda – Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches.
Clade33 Crurotarsi – Crown group crocodiles & birds, extinct branches.
Clade34 Archosauria – Last common ancestor of crocodiles & birds. Wikipedia: Archosaur
The Two Crown groups of Clade34 Archosauria: Clade35 Pseudosuchia (Crocodiles), Clade35 Avemetatarsalia (Flying Dinosaurs, Bird-like Dinosaurs, Birds)
Clade35 Pseudosuchia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches; sister taxon to Avemetatarsalia.
Clade36 Suchia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade37 Paracrocodylomorpha – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade38 Loricata – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade39 Crocodylomorpha – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade40 Solidocrania – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade41 Crocodyliformes – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade42 Mesoeucrocodylia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade43 Metasuchia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade44 Neosuchia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade45 Eusuchia – Crown group crocodiles, extinct branches.
Clade46 Order Crocodilia – Crocodiles. Translation “stone + worm.” Egg-laying, semiaquatic predatory reptiles, first appearing during the Late Cretaceous (100-66 mya) and are the closest living relatives of birds. Their Archosauria ancestors appeared 235 mya and were the only survivors of the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction Event 201.4 mya. Wikipedia: Sauropsida Lee 2013; Wikipedia: Crocodilia 
The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) of India,formerly common, now nearly extinct. Photo: Clpramod. Wikipedia: Gharial
We just came to a major clade break, so we’re returning back to the left margin.
Clade35 Avemetatarsalia – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches; sister taxon to Pseudosuchia.
Clade36 Ornithodira – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade37 Pterosauromorpha – Flying Pterosaurs; sister taxon to Dinosauromorpha.
Sordes (Sordes pilosus) evidences the possibility that pterosaurs had a cruropatagium – a membrane connecting the legs that leaves the tail free.
Artist: Dmitry Bogdanov . Wikipedia: Pterosaur
Clade37 Dinosauromorpha – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches; sister taxon to Pterosauromorpha.
Clade38 Dinosauriformes – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade39 Dracohors – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade40 Dinosauria – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade41 Saurischia – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade42 Eusaurischia – Crown group dinosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade43 Theropoda – upright carnivorous dinosaurs 231-66 mya.
Clade44 Neotheropoda – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade45 Averostra – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade46 Tetanurae – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade47 Orionides – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade48 Avetheropoda – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade49 Coelurosauria – Crown group theropods, extinct branches.
Clade50 Tyrannoraptora – Tyrannosaurs and Coelurosaurs (includes birds).
Clade51 Tyrannosauroidea – Tyrannosaurs and kin.
Clade51 Maniraptoriformes – Coelurosaurians closer to birds than tyrannosaurs.
Clade52 Maniraptora – Crown group coelurosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade53 Pennaraptora – Crown group coelurosaurs, extinct branches.
Clade54 Paraves – Extinct branches, bird-like dinosaurs.
Clade55 Avialae – Bird-like dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx 150mya.
Clade56 Avebrevicauda – Bird-like dinosaurs.
Clade57 Pygostylia – Avialans with stubby tails, Confuciusornis.
Clade58 Ornithothoraces – Advanced thorax for better flight. 
Sinornis restoration. Author: Pavel.Riha.CB. Wikipedia: Sinornis
Clade59 Euornithes – “True birds” excludes Sinornis.
Clade60 Ornithuromorpha – Crown group Aves, extinct branches.
Clade61 Ornithurae – Modern birds plus Ichthyornis, Hesperornis, and Vegavis. 
Vegavis (Vegavis iaai) of Antarctica during the Maastrichtian stage (72.1-66 mya) of the Late Cretaceous. Author: El fosilmaníaco. Wikipedia: Vegavis
Clade62 Class Aves – Appeared during early-to-middle Cretaceous 146-110 mya.
Clade63 Subclass Neornithes – Modern birds
Clade64 Infraclass Paleognathae – Ratites
Clade64 Neognathae – all other birds
Yellow-faced Honeyeater (Caligavis chrysops) raises three chicks in a garden nest, SE Australia. Photo: Benjamint444. Wikipedia: Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Clade21 Synapsida – The line to mammals, sister taxon to Clade21 Sauropsida. 
Nearly all mammals, including humans (Homo sapiens), care for their young for a significant period following birth.
YouTube: Toddler sees world clearly for first time
The Taxonomy Series
Installments post ever other day; installments will not open until posted.
Taxonomy One: A brief survey of the history and wherefores of taxonomy: Aristotle, Linnaeus and his binomial system of nomenclature, taxonomic ranks and the discovery and application of biological clocks.
Taxonomy Two: Introduces the higher levels of current taxonomy: the three Domains and the four Kingdoms. We briefly discuss Kingdom Protista, then the seven phyla of Kingdom Fungi.
Taxonomy Three: Kingdom Plantae.
Taxonomy Four: Kingdom Animalia to Phylum Annelida.
Taxonomy Five: A discussion of Cladistics, how it works and why it is becoming ever more important.
Taxonomy Six: Phylum Chordata, stopping at Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Seven: Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Eight: Class Aves, beginning with a comparison of five different avian checklists of the past 50 years.
Taxonomy Nine: A cladogram and discussion of Subclass Neornithes (modern birds) of the past 110 million years, reaching down to the current forty-one orders of birds.
Taxonomy Ten: A checklist of Neornithes including all ranks and clades down to the rank of the current 251 families of birds (plus a few probable new arrivals) with totals of the current 11,017 species of birds.
A few words on Clades & Cladograms |Taxonomy 5
[By Chuck Almdale]
We previously traveled through the Kingdoms of Protista, Fungi, Plantae and have journeyed most of the way through Kingdom Animalia. We have one brief stop before we enter Phylum Chordata.
The above diagram is the nicely-designed cladogram we used for the plant kingdom in Taxonomy 3, complete with dates of divergence and synapomorphies. From: Cal Poly Humboldt Natural History Museum
Cladistics
We have mentioned clades a few times in passing, but as we’re about to plunge deeper into them we need to introduce a few terms and concepts. The term “clade” first appeared almost 70 years ago, but it took a few decades for it to become accepted and widely use. Before the discovery and use of evolutionary clocks, classification and ranking was based on morphology; the concept of connecting species to their proper ancestor, and then speaking of the entire group – one common ancestor and all its descendants whether extant or extinct – was a goal difficult if not impossible to achieve with a high (or perhaps even low) degree of certainty. After the discovery (or creation) of the biological clocks and the beginning of graphic representations of the relationships between organisms – often including elapsed time as one of the axes – scientists quickly realized they were now capable of reaching a far higher level of detail with a high level of reliability. They also saw a problem in taxonomic nomenclature approaching.
The approximately thirty ranks in the Linnaean system were far too few. There were potentially hundreds – perhaps many thousands – of rank levels waiting to be discovered and named. The day could quickly arrive when words would literally fail to describe. They needed a simpler method of depicting the proliferation of newly-discovered relationships between organisms and their ancestral lineages, and the cladogram was the result. With the new method of description and presentation, a new terminology had to be created. The following definitions are like an evolutionary tree, in that the fundamentals are presented before the specifics.
Darwin’s metaphor for the pattern of universal common descent made literal by his German language popularizer Ernst Haeckel in his 1879 The Evolution of Man. “Man” is at the crown of the tree. Wikipedia: Ernst Haeckel
Clade: A group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Biologist Julian Huxley coined the term in 1957. The name of a clade is conventionally plural; the singular refers to each member individually. Valid clades are monophyletic (defined below).
Cladogram: A graphical presentation of the results of phylogenetic/cladistic analyses. They are vaguely tree-shaped (Haeckel’s is explicitly a tree) and all their branches are phylogenetic hypotheses. A cladogram can place the root at the left and branch to the right, or branch from the top down, even place the root at the center and branch in all directions (example below).
Gavialidae, Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae are clade names here applied to a right-branching phylogenetic tree of crocodylians. As it is missing the common ancestor root at left, it is not a true cladogram. Wikipedia – Clade
Root: The common ancestor of a clade. Except at the root of all life, every root is a branch in an earlier ancestor’s clade, and every common ancestor’s clade of descendants nests within larger clades.
Rootless: Many phylogenetic trees have no root; they may contain many clades but are not a cladogram in their entirety.
Before and after rooting the phylogenetic tree. (Branch lengths are not to any scale). Many phylogenetic reconstructions don’t estimate root position as that increases the number of possible trees and the time it takes to calculate the tree. Visualize the left tree as made from string; push a pin into the root spot, then rotate the remaining branches around the pin-point to yield the tree on the right. The arrow indicates the direction of evolution as implied by the root position. EMBL-EBI – Intro to Phylogenetics
Taxon (plural taxa): A group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Taxonomists now try to avoid naming taxa that are not demonstrably monophyletic (defined farther below).
Taxonomic Rank: The level of a taxon within a taxonomic hierarchy. Phylum is higher rank than Class, Genus is lower than Family, higher is more general, lower is more specific. To identify a particular organism only genus and species are necessary, specification of higher ranks is not necessary.
Primate phylogenetic tree (root is located but not identified): Monophyly (yellow) in Simians; Paraphyly in Prosimians (blue, including red); Polyphyly (red) in Lorises & Tarsiers, both night-active primates. Diagram: Chiswick Chap. Wikipedia – Paraphyly
Monophyletic: When a group includes the common ancestor and all of its descendant groups.
Paraphyletic: When a group includes the common ancestor but not all the descendant groups.
Polyphyletic: When a group is derived from more than one common evolutionary ancestor or ancestral group and therefore not truly suitable for placing in the same taxon. With the advent of protein and/or DNA analysis and biological clocks, many groups formerly believed to be monophyletic were revealed to be polyphyletic and thus needed to be disassembled and reclassified into monophyletic (or at least paraphyletic) clades. This goal is not yet fully achieved but a lot of progress has been made. If you’ve noticed that a lot of bird families and/or orders have been disassembled within the past fifteen years with species sent in various directions and new ones inserted, this is why.
Sister taxa, polytomy and basal taxon all in one clade. Quora – Basal
Branch: The branch shows the path of transmission of genetic information from one generation to the next. When branch lengths indicate genetic change or elapsed time, a reference scale or explanation should be supplied; i.e. the longer the branch, the more elapsed time or genetic change (divergence) has occurred. Branch length often signifies nothing beyond appearance for appearance sake.
Branch Tip: The end (tip) of a branch in a phylogenetic tree represents the latest descendant, whether extant or extinct, of that particular lineage.
Node: The points in a cladogram where lines intersect or branch. This point is the common ancestor of both lineages and represents divergences (speciation events).
Nested: When a clade located is located within another clade. In the diagram below, the Great Ape clade nests within the Ape clade which nests within the Catarrhine clade which nests within the Simian clade and so on down the line.
Sister Clades (or taxa): When two clades have an immediate common ancestor. In the diagram below, lemurs and lorises are sister clades, while humans and tarsiers are not.
Cladogram of modern primate groups, showing branches, (Prosimians, etc.) branch tips (Tarsiers, etc.), and nodes (black dots where branches diverge (or meet). Above each node is the group name , which could be replaced or augmented by the synapomorphy (common character) as shown in the following two cladograms. All tarsiers are haplorhines, but not all haplorhines are tarsiers; all apes are catarrhines, but not all catarrhines are apes; etc. Wikipedia – Clade
Basal: Close to the root of a tree; the group which gave rise to later forms, a non-judgmental term to replace ‘primitive’ or ‘ancestral.’ A group of organisms which diverge early in the evolutionary history of a clade, forming an ‘outgroup’ to the rest of the clade. Basal forms often retain traits of the ancestral form lost in other and later (‘derived’) descendants, thus providing insights into the early stages of evolutionary history of the clade. Basal traits are original condition of the common ancestor. ‘Advanced’ means the character evolved within a later subgroup of the clade, with no judgment about complexity, superiority or adaptiveness of that trait. In the primate diagram above, the prosimian clade is basal to the haplorhines clade, and both prosimian and tarsier clades are basal to the simian clade. Also see the basal taxon in the second diagram above.
Constructing a simple cladogram using synapomorphies (carnivorous, etc.) rather than group names. Wikihow – Read a Cladogram
Extant: Still existing; the taxon still has living members.
Extinct: No longer existing; no members of the taxon are alive today.
Stem Group: An extinct species or collection of species that is more closely related to an extant clade than the extant clade is to its most closely related sister clade. Example: Modern humans are more closely related to the stem group of extinct hominins (Homo erectus, etc.) than they are to extant chimpanzees.
Crown Group: For a clade to be a crown group it must have extant species with common character(s) (synapomorphy). It will also include all extinct clade members as well as the most recent common ancestor of all clade members whether they are extant or extinct.
Apomorphy: A derived trait; a novel character or character state that has evolved from its plesiomorphy (ancestral form).
Synapomorphy: A character or trait that is shared by two or more taxonomic groups and is derived through evolution from a common ancestral form. The cladogram below designates synapomorphies with red bars. Diagonal trees such as this are preferred when indicating synapomorphies.
Sample teaching cladogram from: University of British Columbia
Lineage: A single line of descent or linear chain within a tree connecting the common ancestor to a particular tip taxon.
Polytomy: On a phylogeny tree where more than two branches (lineages) descend from a single ancestral lineage. The presumed reason is that we do not yet have enough evidence to strongly support one set of possible relations over other possible sets. It might mean (but probably doesn’t) that we think that the descendant lineages speciated simultaneously. Ranks and individuals within polytomies are frequently labeled incertae sedis, “of uncertain placement.” Complete information should eventually resolve all polytomies.
Fish cladogram with two polytomies. UC Berkeley
In the following five postings in this series, many of these terms will appear, especially the term “clade.” Unlike “Superorder, Order, Suborder…”, “clade” gives no indication of where in a taxonomic sequence it falls, and only by identifying the prior and following ranks will one have a clue. To clarify this situation somewhat, where appropriate I’ve inserted the term Cladesubscript 1,2,3…
A term like “Clade19 Class Amphibia” will then indicate a rank 19th in the sequence beginning with Clade1 Domain Eukaryota, as well as the Linnaean rank of Class. This is my own invention which you may find useful, confusing or unnecessary. I’m not entirely happy with it, but if nothing else, it shines a little light on how confusing this nomenclatural problem can get. It also helps when constructing and reading long indented phylogenetic trees and lineages which otherwise can become confusing.
Cladograms can get quite complex. The following pair of cladograms pertain to the virus SARS-CoV-2. Pressing <control>+ makes the diagram larger and (one hopes) clearer.
Cladograms of SARS-CoV-2 subclades. Cladograms extracted from ML phylogenies rooted by enforcing a molecular clock. Colored branches represent country of origin of sampled sequences (tip branches) and ancestral lineages (internal branches). Numbers at nodes indicate ultrafast bootstrap (BB) support (only >90% values are shown).
(a) Cladogram of a monophyletic clade within the SARS-CoV-2 ML tree inferred from sequences available on March 3 rd 2020 (Supplementary Figure S1). The subclade including sequences from Italy and Germany, named Subclade A (lower right), is highlighted.
(b) Cladogram of subclade A of the SARS-CoV-2 ML tree including additional sequences available on March 10th 2020 (Supplementary Figure S2).
Link to Research Gate report.
A cladogram of SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants. This may actually be a phylogenetic tree, not a cladogram, as there may be no root defined at the center (but who can tell?).
Nextstrain-generated radial cladogram of SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants (as of 12 June 2021). Showing 519 of 3,883 genomes randomly sampled between Jun 2020 and May 2021, belonging to 23 PANGO lineages. Circles tip branches containing genomes with any mutation in L452 (circles on branches without the mutations were manually removed for a visual clarity). Yellow circles, branches with L452R; blue, with L452Q; orange, with L452M. Black triangle tips the branch of lineage that includes CAL.20A. (At the date of analysis, CAL.20A strains were not among the sampled genomes in the Nextstrain database, and only three B.1.232 [all non-CAL.20A] lineages were found). Nomenclature: PANGO lineage followed by Nextstrain clade in parenthesis and the current VOC/VOI designation. In red, VOC/VOI with an omnipresent or nearly omnipresent L452 mutation (VOC beta is in black, as the L452 mutation is found only in few genomes of the variant). Link to Research Gate report.
When examined close up, the gray area fringing the circular cladogram above is revealed to be tiny cladograms. I can’t imagine how much you’d have to blow it up (and somehow maintain clarity) to be able to actually read it.
From: Research Gate report.
For additional information:
AmphibiaWeb – Taxonomy
The Burgess Shale – Stem groups & crown groups
Digital Atlas of Ancient Life – Crowns & stems
Wikipedia – Clade
Wikipedia – Crown Group
Wikipedia – List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
Wikipedia – Phylogenetic nomenclature
The Taxonomy Series
Installments post ever other day; installments will not open until posted.
Taxonomy One: A brief survey of the history and wherefores of taxonomy: Aristotle, Linnaeus and his binomial system of nomenclature, taxonomic ranks and the discovery and application of biological clocks.
Taxonomy Two: Introduces the higher levels of current taxonomy: the three Domains and the four Kingdoms. We briefly discuss Kingdom Protista, then the seven phyla of Kingdom Fungi.
Taxonomy Three: Kingdom Plantae.
Taxonomy Four: Kingdom Animalia to Phylum Annelida.
Taxonomy Five: A discussion of Cladistics, how it works and why it is becoming ever more important.
Taxonomy Six: Phylum Chordata, stopping at Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Seven: Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Eight: Class Aves, beginning with a comparison of five different avian checklists of the past 50 years.
Taxonomy Nine: A cladogram and discussion of Subclass Neornithes (modern birds) of the past 110 million years, reaching down to the current forty-one orders of birds.
Taxonomy Ten: A checklist of Neornithes including all ranks and clades down to the rank of the current 251 families of birds (plus a few probable new arrivals) with totals of the current 11,017 species of birds.
Kingdom Animalia | Taxonomy 4
[By Chuck Almdale]
Kingdom Animalia (or Metazoa, Choanoblastaea, Gastrobionta or Euanimalia)
Now we finally get to the animals, Kingdom Animalia, all those warm and fuzzy creatures so dear to our hearts. There are over 1 ½ million described living animal species of which over 1 million are insects, 85,000 are molluscs, 65,000 are vertebrates; only 6,400 are mammals of which more than half are rodents or bats. Warm and fuzzy animal species you’d be happy to hold on your lap are definitely in the minority.
Estimates of total extant animal species range 7.8 – 30 million, or 5 – 15 times as many organisms as are now known; most of these nameless entities are insects. Animals are multicellular eukaryotic organisms which – with very few exceptions – consume organic material, breath oxygen, have myocytes (muscle cells), are able to move, and can reproduce sexually. Early in their development animal embryos go through a blastula stage. Animalia is considered a true clade as they (or we, really) developed from a single common ancestor. Yes, all those worms, sponges and things that go squish in the night are your many-times-removed cousins. [Getting a feeling for just how many times removed is one of the purposes of this series.] Animal length ranges from 8.5 μm (0.00033 in) to 180 feet long (a worm, not a whale). And, as with all the other kingdoms, there are many systems for organizing taxonomic relationships, with phyla numbering from seven to over forty. We’ll pick an intermediate system that has sixteen phyla; fourteen of them are numbered below, the final two will be presented in a posting-to-come. As all those reading this qualify as animals and are of course intimately familiar with their own personal kingdom, I’m not going to go into great detail. Link to a good article on Animal Diversity.
A few definitions:
Basal Clade: The earliest clade to branch in a larger clade (kingdom, phylum, class, etc.); not part of any core or adjacent crown group clade.
Blastula: An early stage in animal embryonic development, consisting of a hollow sphere of cells (blastomeres) surrounding a fluid-filled cavity (blastocoel), produced by repeated cleavage of a fertilized egg.
Combination Clade Term: Combines terms used in the immediate daughter clades, often with suffix “-morpha (form).” Example: Xenacoelomorpha: Xena + coel + omorpha, combines the two daughter terms xenoturbella and acoelomorpha. This is a useful and increasingly-popular design for clade names.
Duterostome: “second + mouth.” The first embryonic opening becomes the anus.
Eukaryotic: Having cells that contain a membrane-bound nucleus and organelles. The Eukaryota consists of all known non-microscopic organisms, including protozoa, fungi, plant and animals.
Heterotrophic: Getting food by consuming other plants or animals. Example heterotrophs: worms, insects, jellyfish, lions, humans.
Hox Genes: A subset of homeobox genes and a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals.
Proterostome: “first + mouth.” The first embryonic opening becomes the mouth.
A. Kingdom Animalia, the Basal Clades
1. Phylum Porifera: Translation “pore + bearing.” This basal animal sponge clade are multicellular filter-feeding organisms with bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl (connective tissue containing amoeboid cells, fibrils and skeletal elements) sandwiched between the external pinacoderm cell layer and the internal choanoderm layer. There are 5,000-10,000 species. Most reproduce sexually but some can also reproduce asexually. Link to Sponges. 
Sponge biodiversity and morphotypes at wall lip site in 60 feet of water. Included: yellow Tube Sponge, Aplysina fistularis, purple Vase Sponge, Niphates digitalis, red Encrusting Sponge, Spirastrella coccinea, and gray Rope Sponge, Callyspongia sp. Photo: Twilight Zone Expedition Team 2007, NOAA-OE. Wikipedia: Sponge
2. Phylum Placozoa: Translation: “flat + animal.” Another basal and primitive metazoan clade, they constitute a phylum of marine, free-living (non-parasitic) animals, simple blob-like aggregates of cells lacking body parts or organs. Described as “the simplest animals on Earth,” they move through water by waving cilia, eat by engulfment through the cell membrane and reproduce by fission (splitting) or budding. We currently know of only four families and four species. Link to Placozoa.
Not a meat patty, but a placozoan, a small, flattened animal, typically about one mm across and about 25 microns thick. Like the amoebae they superficially resemble, they continually change their external shape. In addition, spherical phases occasionally form which may facilitate movement. Trichoplax lacks tissues and organs. There is no manifest body symmetry so it is not possible to distinguish anterior from posterior or left from right. It is made up of a few thousand cells of six types in three distinct layers.
Photo: Michael G. Hadfield Wikipedia: Placozoa
3. Phylum Cnidaria: Translation: “sting + nettle.” Jellies, gorgonians, anemones and corals are the primary members of this worldwide phylum of fresh water and marine animals. They have a decentralized nervous system distributed throughout a gelatinous body, with cnidocytes – specialized cells with ejectable venomous flagella used primarily to capture prey. The body consists of mesoglea, non-living, jelly-like substance, sandwiched between two layers of densely-packed epithelium that are mostly one cell thick. They can reproduce both sexually and asexually. They are radially symmetrical with mouth is surrounded by cnidocyte-laden tentacles, their single body cavity handles digestion, excretion and respiration. Many live in colonies, some are parasitic. The 11,000 described species fall into three subphyla: Anthozoa (corals and anemones), Medusozoa (jellyfish and hydroids), and Myxozoa (parasites). Link to Cnidaria.
Four examples of Cnidaria (clockwise, from top left): jellyfish Chrysaora melanaster, gorgonian Annella mollis, sea anemone Nemanthus annamensis, stony coral Acropora cervicornis.
Photos: Frédéric Ducarme. Wikipedia: Cnidaria
4. Phylum Ctenophora: Translation: “comb + carry.” Comb Jellies are a worldwide phylum of marine invertebrates. The “combs” are groups of cilia used for swimming. They are the largest animals to use cilia for swimming and can grow to 5 ft. long. The body is a mass of jelly two layers thick, each layer two cells thick. They have a wide variety of body shapes, some egg-shaped with retractable tentacles to capture prey, some flat and combless, some with large mouths to consume other ctenophores. 186 living species in two classes are currently recognized. Link to Ctenophora. 
“Ctenophorae” (comb jelly). Photo: Orin Zebest. Wikipedia: Ctenophora
B. Kingdom Animalia, Clade Bilateria:
All remaining animals not previously discussed fall into this large clade (or infrakingdom) characterized by bilateral symmetry (left and right sides are mirror images during embryonic development). Nearly all (except echinoderms) remain bilateral into adulthood, with body plans laid around a longitudinal axis with head, tail, back and belly. Many are cephalized – specialized sense organs and central nerve ganglia (brain) are concentrated at the front end. In 2011, a now-widely accepted taxonomic alteration occurred resulting in the top-level division between Phylum Xenacoelomorpha and Clade Nephrozoa. Link to Bilateria.
5. Clade Bilateria, Phylum Xenacoelomorpha: A combination clade term, translation “friend + hollow.” Some of this phylum’s known 414 species were previously considered to be deuterostomes (“second mouth,” see definition at top), but DNA analysis showed they were a clade (common ancestor) and none were deuterostome or protostome. Most of these tiny, flat, wormlike organisms live in the spaces between grains of marine or brackish sediment. Link to Xenacoelomorpha. 
Xenoturbella japonica holotype female. The white arrowhead indicates the ring furrow. Photo: Hiroaki Nakano, Hideyuki Miyazawa, Akiteru Maeno, Toshihiko Shiroishi, Keiichi Kakui, Ryo Koyanagi, Miyuki Kanda, Noriyuki Satoh, Akihito Omori & Hisanori Kohtsuka Wikipedia: Xenacoelomprpha
C. Kingdom Animalia, Clade Bilateria, Clade Nephrozoa:
Translation “kidney + animal.” This clade, sister taxon to Phylum Xenacoelomorpha, contains all other animals not previously discussed, divided into Superphylum Deuterostomia and Clade Protostomia. Prior to 2011, Deuterostomia and Protostomia were the top division, appearing 650 mya, immediately below Bilateria. We’ll discuss the Protostomids first, then continue with the Deuterostomid cordates in the next blog in this series. Link to Nephrozoa.
D. Clade Bilateria, Clade Nephrozoa, Clade Protostomia:
Translation “first + mouth.” Originally thought to be characterized by the formation of the organism’s mouth before its anus during embryonic development, but since found to be extremely variable. Well known examples of protostomes are arthropods, molluscs, annelids, flatworms and nematodes. Link to Protostomia.
6. Phylum Nematoda – Roundworms: Translation: “thread + like.” Both free-living and parasitic, they have a tubular digestive tract opening at each end. Reduced number of Hox genes. Worldwide in many ecosystems. 25,000 described species, estimate of total species range from 40,000 to over a million. Link to Nematoda.
Gravid adult female Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, roundworm gastrointestinal parasite of rodents, with lifecycle similar to human hookworm parasites, collected from the small intestine of an infected BALB/c mouse. The photo shows a hooked anterior end containing eggs. Photo: J. Claire Hoving. Wikipedia: Nematode
7. Phylum Tardigrada – Water Bears: Translation: “slow + walk.” Worldwide in every ecosystem, they are probably the hardiest animals known, able to survive the vacuum of outer space. Eight-legged, plump, segmented and small (0.004-0.06” long). 1,335 known species. Link to Tardigrada.
Echiniscus insularis – a heterotardigrade or “water bear.”
Photo: Kiosya Y, Vončina K, Gąsiorek P. Wikipedia: Tardigrade
8. Phylum Arthropoda – Arthropods: Translation “jointed + feet.” Segmented bodies with a hard exoskeleton of chitin and jointed appendages, growing by shedding their exoskeleton. Worldwide in all ecosystems, over 1,200,000 described species, with 5-15 times more still undescribed. Link to Arthropoda. 
Twelve Arthropods L to R: Row top: Anomalocaris, Horseshoe Crab, Decapod; Row 2: Isoxys, Arachnid, Barnacle; Row 3: Leanchoilia, Centipede, Springtail, Row bottom: Trilobite, Millipede, Insect (bee).
Photo: various. Wikipedia: Arthropod
9. Phylum Rotifera – Wheel Animals. Translation “wheel + bearing.” First described in 1696 as “an animal like a large maggot which could contract itself into a spherical figure and then stretch itself out again; the end of its tail appeared with a forceps like that of an earwig.” Mostly microscopic, ranging in size 0.0020 in. to 0.79 in., common in fresh water worldwide, with a few saltwater species. The cylindrical body has a head, trunk and foot, a ciliated corona is on the head surrounding the mouth. Some are free swimming, others “inchworm” along substrates, others are sessile or planktonic. In June 2021 a rotifer was revived after 24,000 years in the Siberian permafrost. 2,000 known species. Link to Rotifera. 
A Bdelloid Rotifera (wheel animal). Photo: Frank Fox. Wikipedia: Rotifer
10. Phylum Platyhelminthes – Flatworms: Translation “flat + worm”. Relatively simple, unsegmented soft-bodied acoelomates (no body cavity). As they have no specialized circulatory or respiratory organs, they must be flat to allow oxygen and nutrients to move throughout their bodies by diffusion. A single opening into the digestive cavity allows nutrients to pass in and wastes to pass out, thus food cannot be processed continuously. The three classes of Cestoda (Tapeworms), Trematoda (Flukes) and Monogenea are all parasitic. The former Class or clade of Turbellaria held the 4,500 species in the sub-groups that are not exclusively parasitic but mostly predatory. These range from 0.039 in. to freshwater forms more than 20 in. long. There are 29,500 described species. Link to Platyhelminthes. 
From top left clockwise: Eudiplozoon nipponicum (monogeneans), tapeworm head (tapeworms), liver fluke (trematodes), Pseudobiceros hancockanus (Turbellaria). Photo: OJJ Wikipedia: Flatworm
11. Phylum Nemertea: Ribbon or Proboscis Worms. Translation from “Nereis” (unerring one, for the accuracy of the proboscis), named for Greek sea-nymph Nemetes. Very thin and slow moving, most under 20” long, one species 180 ft. long. Mostly in the ocean, some live on the sea floor. 1350 known species. Link to Nemertea. 
Bootlace Worm Lineus longissimus, a species of ribbon worm captured offshore from Britain, one of the longest known animals with specimens up to 180 ft. long being reported. Its mucus is highly toxic to human skin.
Photo: Citron / CC-BY-SA-3.0. Wikipedia: Lineus longissimus
12. Phylum Bryozoa: Translation “moss + animal.” Worldwide in salt or fresh water, mostly tropical at depths less than 100 meters. Nearly all are colonial, feed using a crown of tentacles (lophophore). 6,000 species described, all are small (0.015” long). Link to Bryozoa.
Greater Hornwrack Flustra foliacea (Linnaeus, 1758) from Belgium coastal waters. It looks like seaweed but is a colonial animal, each “leaf” is bilaminar, or two zooids (individual animals) thick. Photo: Hans Hillewaert. Wikipedia: Bryozoa
13. Phylum Mollusca – Snails, slugs, clams, chitons, squid, ammonites, tusk shells, worm-like molluscs. Translation “soft.” The second-largest animal phylum with 85,000-107,000 described species, another estimated 60,000-100,000 species undescribed, around 23% of all marine organisms, many also in fresh water and terrestrial habitats. Highly diverse in size, structure, behavior and habitat, divided into 6 or 7 extant classes plus 2 or 3 extinct classes. The most universal features are a body of solid muscle, a mantle cavity used for breathing and excretion, a hard tongue-like radula and a nervous system using nerve cords and ganglia. The extant Classes are: Gastropoda – snails and slugs, 70,000 known species, 80% of all molluscs. Bivalvia – clams, mussels, etc., 20,000 species. Polyplacophora – Chitons, 1,000 species. Cephalopoda– Squid, octopus, ammonites, 900 species. Scaphopoda – Tusk Shells, 500 species. Aplacophora – Worm-like seabed molluscs, 320 species. Monoplacophora – Seabed molluscs with cap shells. Link to Mollusca. 
A few of the many mollusks. Wikipedia: Mollusca
14. Phylum Annelida – Segmented worms. Translation: “little ring.” They are worldwide in nearly all habitats. They are bilaterally symmetrical (as are all the bilateria), triploblastic (3 germ layers in the gastrula which follows the blastula in embryonic growth, as with all the bilateria), coelomate (body cavity surrounds all the organs), invertebrate, and move by means of parapodia (external body protrusions bearing bristly chaetae). There are 17,000-22,000 known species, including ragworms, earthworms and leaches, and range in size from microscopic to Microchaetus rappi, the African giant earthworm which grows up to 22 ft. and weighs 3.3 pounds. Link to Annelida.
Spirobranchus giganteus – Christmas Tree Worm, a marine annelid living in holes in coral; the colorful “tree,” which can retract in a fraction of a second, is used for feeding and respiration. Wikipedia: Spirobranchus giganteus
Our next posting in this series is on Cladistics. Following that we return to Kingdom Animalia where we’ll look at Superphylum Deuterostomia which includes our own Phylum Chordata and our sister taxa Phylum Echinodermata, home of starfish and sea urchins who look so much like us it’s sometimes hard to tell us apart.
The Taxonomy Series
Installments post ever other day; installments will not open until posted.
Taxonomy One: A brief survey of the history and wherefores of taxonomy: Aristotle, Linnaeus and his binomial system of nomenclature, taxonomic ranks and the discovery and application of biological clocks.
Taxonomy Two: Introduces the higher levels of current taxonomy: the three Domains and the four Kingdoms. We briefly discuss Kingdom Protista, then the seven phyla of Kingdom Fungi.
Taxonomy Three: Kingdom Plantae.
Taxonomy Four: Kingdom Animalia to Phylum Annelida.
Taxonomy Five: A discussion of Cladistics, how it works and why it is becoming ever more important.
Taxonomy Six: Phylum Chordata, stopping at Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Seven: Class Mammalia.
Taxonomy Eight: Class Aves, beginning with a comparison of five different avian checklists of the past 50 years.
Taxonomy Nine: A cladogram and discussion of Subclass Neornithes (modern birds) of the past 110 million years, reaching down to the current forty-one orders of birds.
Taxonomy Ten: A checklist of Neornithes including all ranks and clades down to the rank of the current 251 families of birds (plus a few probable new arrivals) with totals of the current 11,017 species of birds.
[Text by Chuck Almdale; photos by Ray Juncosa & Chris Tosdevin]
*Original title of a 1992 film about legal eagles.
Don’t miss the quiz at the bottom.
It’s not a bird, but it was certainly among the most stunning flying creatures seen. But birders tend to appreciate (or simply envy) just about anything that flies: butterflies, moths, bats, grasshoppers, bees, even the occasional fly or those Jade Beetles (my name) that eat our figs unless the squirrels find them first. Mosquitoes and hornets, not so popular.
This diurnal moth of the family Erebidae, one of the largest moth families, is the Brown (or Brown-winged) Ctenucha, and is found from Central to Southern Coastal California. The body of Ctenucha brunnea is 20–26 mms (0.79–1.02 in) long and is blue with red markings on the head and shoulders; the wingspan 35–50 mm (1 3/8–2 in). Richard Harper Stretch first described it in 1872. Wikipedia says the adults are on wing mid-May to mid-July, but here it is August and this one is still out and about. They feed on the nectar of Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), a very common shrub of our coastal sage scrub.
The eggs are round, laid in rows and fade from white to yellow. Larvae are black with buff-colored or yellow hairs, with two black tufts on the front and rear and an amber or orange head. They feed on Wild Rye (Leymus condensatus) plus other grasses and sedges. The pupae are chestnut in color and wrapped loosely in a cocoon of the larval hairs. From Santa Maria and north into Oregon it is replaced by Ctenucha multifaria. Keep an eye out for them! Two Links: Moth Photographers, Bug Guide
This won’t be all about moths and butterflies, but I have to put in some more photos of our very locally very common Pygmy Blue Butterfly (Brephidium exilis), reportedly the smallest butterfly in the world (some waffling websites say among the smallest, hrumpf!), wingspan 0.47-0.79″. Several dozen (at least!) were seen near a short stretch of the pathway to the beach, although you have to be careful of such claims are there are flies in the area nearly as large.
Although the low tide was not particularly low at +2.0 ft, it was less than an hour after the low that we began birding, and nearly all the water had run out of the channels and lagoon into the ocean.
Unlike the other herons and egrets we never get many Green Herons, but we’ve had one per month for the past three months. Our records show that we had 6 on one occasion, 4 once, 3 four times, and the rest mostly singletons. They show up only 13% of the time – Black-crowned Night Heron is the next lowest at 47% of the time, and Snowy Egret tops the frequency list at 99% – but they’re better than the others at hiding and being obscure so they’re probably here more often than we think. Their neck is much longer than it looks here, but they keep it scrunched and hidden by feathers except when they lunge. As previously mentioned, the green is a muted olive-green, often not seen except in bright sunlight.
The shorebirds were definitely returning – five species “new for the season,” and twelve in all. The Ruddy Turnstones are among the most beautiful in breeding plumage (try Churchill on the Hudson Bay in June for thousands of them). The one below is a bit past the peak, but still quite lovely.
Not just shorebirds were dropping in. A small flock of six Western Kingbirds landed in the brush near us, and perched awhile before setting about on some serious flycatching.
One of the birds of the day was the Hairy Woodpecker. A couple of our birders who still have good hearing – probably Chris, Femi or Ruth – heard it among the cypress at the back of Malibu Colony. We watched it climb up and down the trunk and limbs before it took off. The lagoon is not exactly Woodpecker-rich habitat. Over the past 45 years our grand totals are: 6 species, 34 sightings, 35 individual birds. The six species: Acorn 1, Downy 7, Nuttall’s 16 and Hairy 3 Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsucker 1 and Northern Flicker 7. I’ve seen more woodpecker species and higher counts in 5 hours of birding in a Georgia forest.
A few hours later the lagoon level was rising.
The Western Snowy Plovers were back last month with six birds; 22 this month. We didn’t see any banded birds. They were resting peacefully (as they do during rising tides) at the lagoon’s SE corner until two young women strolled right through the middle of them and they moved elsewhere not so easily seen nor trodden upon.
Black-bellied Plovers were in all shapes and forms, seventy birds strong.
European Birders call them Grey Plovers. As their bellies turn black in spring and back to off-white in late summer, thus spending more time “grey” than “black-bellied,” that may be a better name, as Golden Plovers also get black-bellies in breeding. There really is no one-name-fits-all-members-all-the-time-and-only-members for this species, and most other species as well. This one below seems to be losing a wing feather.
The Killdeer is a close cousin of the Black-belled Plover, albeit a different genus and 1″ shorter. Killdeer have bred around the lagoon for decades; I spotted my first Killdeer nest there in 1995, and their residency probably predates the previous ice age.
Long-billed Curlew is a species that drops in during migration for some R&R, but rarely stays long as the habitat isn’t really right for them. My first sighting of them here was 39 birds in mid-August 1980, a real anomaly, as my total for this species at the lagoon is only 70 birds on 22 occasions. Fifteen of those sightings were of single birds.
The lagoon edge was quite curvaceous, as befits the Surfrider Beach locale.
Shortly before leaving Chris Tosdevin saw a flock of birds drop down next to some distant water (hence photo blurriness). He decided upon closer photo analysis they were Brown-headed Cowbirds and I concur. They look like some sort of finch when they’re in this juvenile light brown coloration. Several of them were molting into dark plumage as is one of these below.
Our most unusual shorebird, a Greater Yellowlegs, managed to elude our photographers. They’ve been here on 39 occasions, a total of 51 individuals, or only 4% of our recorded visits. That’s not a lot for 319 total visits, but the Lesser (perhaps that ought to be Fewer) Yellowlegs is even less common: two occasions, two birds total.
Quiz Time!
As these photos are all taken this August at the lagoon, many of the birds may be in plumage transition. Hint – Some of the following hints are “jokes” as they should be obvious and therefore of little use, but I’m not saying which ones.
Quiz Answers & credits
#1. Western Kingbird (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24) White outer tail feathers.
#2. Caspian Tern Tosdevin 8/25/24). Bloody great bloody red bill.
#3. Black-bellied Plovers, all of them. (Ray Juncosa 8/25/24)
#4. Sanderlings (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#5. Western Snowy Plover (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#6. Sanderling, partially molted (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#7. Northern Mockingbird (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24). Question: Why is it “Northern?” Seriously.
#8. Brown-headed Cowbirds (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24) in juvenile plumage.
#9. Black-bellied Plover and Sanderling (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#10. Snowy Egret (Ray Juncosa 8/25/24)
#11. Double-crested Cormorants, end of nesting season in shopping center tree. (Ray Juncosa 8/25/24)
#12. Glaucous Winged Gull (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#13. Two Least Sandpipers and four Semipalmated Plovers (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
#14. Allen’s Hummingbird (Chris Tosdevin 8/25/24)
Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 8-28-24: 7985 lists, 2561 eBirders, 320 species.
Most recent species added: Red-breasted Nuthatch (31 October 2023, Kyle Te Poel).
Birds new for the season: American Coot, Semipalmated Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, Ring-billed Gull, Forster’s Tern, Royal Tern, Belted Kingfisher, Hairy Woodpecker, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Cassin’s Kingbird, Western Kingbird, Oak Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, House Wren, European Starling, Northern Mockingbird, Dark-eyed Junco, Brown-headed Cowbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Common Yellowthroat. “New for the season” means it has been three or more months since last recorded on our trips.
Many, many thanks to photographers: Ray Juncosa, Chris Tosdevin.
Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips; no reservations or Covid card necessary unless specifically mentioned:
- Coastal Cleanup Day Sat. Sep 21, 9 am – Noon
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun. Sep 22, 8:30 (adults) & 10 am (parents & kids)
- Huntington Central Park, Sat. Oct 12, 8 am, contact leader
- These and any other trips we announce for the foreseeable future will depend upon expected status of the Covid/flu/etc. pandemic at trip time. Any trip announced may be canceled shortly before trip date if it seems necessary. By now any other comments should be superfluous.
- Link to Programs & Field Trip schedule.
The next SMBAS Zoom program: Professor Barney Schlinger, UCLA Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Language and the Brains of Birds & Humans, Evening Meeting, Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk is again running. Reservations not necessary for families, but for groups (scouts, etc.), call Jean (213-522-0062).
Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon
More recent aerial photo
Prior checklists:
2023: Jan-June, July-Dec 2024: Jan-June
2021: Jan-July, July-Dec 2022: Jan-June, July-Dec
2020: Jan-July, July-Dec 2019: Jan-June, July-Dec
2018: Jan-June, July-Dec 2017: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016: Jan-June, July-Dec 2015: Jan-May, July-Dec
2014: Jan-July, July-Dec 2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July-Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec 2009: Jan-June, July-Dec
The 10-year comparison summaries created during the Lagoon Reconfiguration Project period, remain available—despite numerous complaints—on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page. Very briefly summarized, the results unexpectedly indicate that avian species diversification and numbers improved slightly during the restoration period June’12-June’14.
Many thanks to Marie Barnidge-McIntyre, Femi Faminu, Lillian Johnson & others for their contributions to this month’s checklist.
The species lists below is irregularly re-sequenced to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist. If part of the right side of the chart below is hidden, there’s a slider button inconveniently located at the bottom end of the list. The numbers 1-9 left of the species names are keyed to the nine categories of birds at the bottom.
[Chuck Almdale]
| Malibu Census 2023-24 | 3/24 | 4/28 | 5/26 | 6/23 | 7/28 | 8/25 | |
| Temperature | 46-54 | 62-72 | 57-64 | 62-72 | 63-72 | 64-78 | |
| Tide Lo/Hi Height | H+4.71 | L-0.14 | L-0.77 | L-1.17 | L+1.81 | L+2.00 | |
| Tide Time | 0936 | 0738 | 0635 | 0537 | 0916 | 0735 | |
| 1 | Brant (Black) | 2 | |||||
| 1 | Canada Goose | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 4 | |
| 1 | Cinnamon Teal | 2 | |||||
| 1 | Northern Shoveler | 4 | 2 | ||||
| 1 | Gadwall | 24 | 20 | 22 | 35 | 27 | 12 |
| 1 | American Wigeon | 4 | |||||
| 1 | Mallard | 12 | 10 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 2 |
| 1 | Green-winged Teal | 4 | |||||
| 1 | Surf Scoter | 6 | 4 | ||||
| 1 | Long-tailed Duck | 1 | |||||
| 1 | Red-breasted Merganser | 9 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 2 | Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Western Grebe | 9 | 1 | ||||
| 7 | Feral Pigeon | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | ||
| 8 | Anna’s Hummingbird | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| 8 | Allen’s Hummingbird | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2 | American Coot | 63 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 5 | Black-necked Stilt | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Black Oystercatcher | 4 | |||||
| 5 | Black-bellied Plover | 3 | 1 | 51 | 70 | ||
| 5 | Killdeer | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 4 |
| 5 | Semipalmated Plover | 9 | 13 | ||||
| 5 | Snowy Plover | 20 | 6 | 22 | |||
| 5 | Whimbrel | 39 | 4 | 2 | 52 | 2 | |
| 5 | Long-billed Curlew | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Marbled Godwit | 20 | |||||
| 5 | Wilson’s Phalarope | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Willet | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | |
| 5 | Greater Yellowlegs | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Ruddy Turnstone | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Sanderling | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Least Sandpiper | 12 | 2 | 23 | |||
| 5 | Western Sandpiper | 20 | 6 | 13 | |||
| 6 | Bonaparte’s Gull | 2 | 10 | ||||
| 6 | Heermann’s Gull | 16 | 6 | 65 | 42 | 5 | |
| 6 | Ring-billed Gull | 18 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 6 | Western Gull | 58 | 16 | 45 | 160 | 220 | 113 |
| 6 | Herring Gull | 3 | |||||
| 6 | California Gull | 170 | 60 | 38 | 3 | 10 | 23 |
| 6 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 6 | Caspian Tern | 2 | 20 | 8 | 14 | 4 | |
| 6 | Forster’s Tern | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 6 | Elegant Tern | 200 | 190 | 25 | 240 | 10 | |
| 6 | Royal Tern | 4 | 60 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 2 | Red-throated Loon | 2 | |||||
| 2 | Common Loon | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | 35 | ||||
| 2 | Pelagic Cormorant | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Double-crested Cormorant | 32 | 26 | 120 | 24 | 28 | 37 |
| 2 | Brown Pelican | 171 | 235 | 348 | 125 | 163 | 27 |
| 3 | Black-crowned Night-Heron | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Snowy Egret | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| 3 | Green Heron | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 3 | Great Egret | 5 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | Great Blue Heron | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | |
| 4 | Turkey Vulture | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 4 | Osprey | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Belted Kingfisher | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Hairy Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Black Phoebe | 2 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| 9 | Ash-throated Flycatcher | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Cassin’s Kingbird | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Western Kingbird | 8 | |||||
| 9 | Warbling Vireo | 1 | |||||
| 9 | California Scrub-Jay | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | American Crow | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| 9 | Common Raven | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 9 | Oak Titmouse | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Tree Swallow | 1 | 3 | ||||
| 9 | Violet-green Swallow | 2 | 8 | ||||
| 9 | No. Rough-winged Swallow | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| 9 | Barn Swallow | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| 9 | Cliff Swallow | 30 | 6 | 4 | |||
| 9 | Bushtit | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 19 | 5 |
| 9 | Wrentit | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | House Wren | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 9 | European Starling | 5 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Northern Mockingbird | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Scaly-breasted Munia | 1 | |||||
| 9 | House Finch | 15 | 10 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 5 |
| 9 | Lesser Goldfinch | 20 | 2 | 5 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Dark-eyed Junco | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | White-crowned Sparrow | 15 | |||||
| 9 | Song Sparrow | 14 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 10 |
| 9 | California Towhee | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Spotted Towhee | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Hooded Oriole | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Red-winged Blackbird | 4 | 11 | ||||
| 9 | Brown-headed Cowbird | 2 | 18 | ||||
| 9 | Great-tailed Grackle | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 9 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Yellow-rumped Warbler | 4 | |||||
| Totals by Type | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 72 | 45 | 50 | 59 | 37 | 14 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 268 | 263 | 516 | 155 | 192 | 68 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 4 | 13 | 7 | 22 | 12 | 12 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 123 | 29 | 6 | 9 | 139 | 157 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 272 | 362 | 302 | 254 | 527 | 165 |
| 7 | Doves | 2 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 12 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 7 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 9 | Passerines | 115 | 57 | 118 | 92 | 70 | 92 |
| Totals Birds | 864 | 773 | 1015 | 601 | 991 | 528 | |
| Total Species | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 9 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 5 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 8 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
| 7 | Doves | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 9 | Passerines | 22 | 14 | 19 | 17 | 9 | 22 |
| Totals Species – 98 | 58 | 45 | 52 | 44 | 38 | 62 |
Citizen Science: Smoke and Birds
The Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society is encouraging all our members to participate in an important research project by counting and reporting the number of birds seen or heard, by species, for 10 minutes each week in a location convenient to them. Eventually this information will support our efforts to maintain or improve the abundance of birds in our area by clarifying the impacts of wildfires due to anthropogenic Climate Change.
Project Phoenix is a community science project supported by the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC). The goal is to engage communities in monitoring birds in their neighborhoods during Summer and Fall to learn more about how wildfire smoke and urban air pollution impact bird behavior and species distributions. This research will help identify the places and resources birds use when it is smoky to inform local conservation strategies and protect birds in the age of megafires. The program is open to birders of all ages and backgrounds including families and beginner birders. There is no cost to participate, and online training is available for folks new to birding. Volunteers sign up to conduct weekly, 10-minute, stationary point counts of birds at a monitoring site of their choosing – their backyard, favorite park, etc. They may contribute additional observations (e.g., from additional surveys or opportunistically) if they choose. Last year’s Project focused on monitoring birds in California for 3 months – August through October. In 2024, it is expanding to include communities in Washington and Oregon and collecting data for 5 months – July through November. Identification of species by sound may be determined using The Cornell Lab “Merlin” app on your smartphone. Reporting of the data is via eBird.
Project Phoenix research goals:
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Collect data on the presence and abundance of birds during the fire season.
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Evaluate the impact of urban air pollution and wildfire smoke on bird distributions, and consider if these responses vary across habitats.
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Propose local intervention strategies to help birds during acute smoke events
To participate, go to https://www.project-phoenix-investigating-bird-responses-to-smoke.org/
NB: Many thanks to Whittier Audubon for the above article. Also, surveying is from now to November so there is plenty of time to participate.
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 