The order Gruiformes, for which even familial composition remains controversial, is perhaps the least well understood avian order from a phylogenetic perspective. The history of the systematics of the order is presented, and the ecological and biogeographic characteristics of its members are summarized. Using cladistic techniques, phylogenetic relationships among fossil and modern genera of the Gruiformes were estimated based on 381 primarily osteological characters; relationships among modern species of Grues (Psophiidae, Aramidae, Gruidae, Heliornithidae and Rallidae) were assessed based on these characters augmented by 189 characters of the definitive integument. A strict consensus tree for 20,000 shortest trees compiled for the matrix of gruiform genera (length = 967, CI = 0.517) revealed a number of nodes common to the solution set, many of which were robust to bootstrapping and had substantial support (Bremer) indices. Robust nodes included those supporting: a sister relationship between the Pedionomidae and Turnicidae; monophyly of the Gruiformes exclusive of the Pedionomidae and Turnicidae; a sister relationship between the Cariamidae and Phorusrhacoidea; a sister relationship between a clade comprising
Eurypyga
and
Messelornis
and one comprising
Rhynochetos
and
Aptornis
; monophyly of the Grues (Psophiidae, Aramidae, Gruidae, Heliornithidae and Rallidae); monophyly of a clade (Gruoidea) comprising (in order of increasingly close relationship)
Psophia
,
Aramus
,
Balearica
and other Gruidae, with monophyly of each member in this series confirmed; a sister relationship between the Heliornithidae and Rallidae; and monophyly of the Rallidae exclusive of
Himantornis
. Autapomorphic divergence was comparatively high for
Pedionomus
,
Eurypyga
,
Psophia
,
Himantornis
and
Fulica
; extreme autapomorphy, much of which is unique for the order, characterized the extinct, flightless
Aptornis
.
In the species–level analysis of modern Grues, special efforts were made to limit the analytical impacts of homoplasy related to flightlessness in a number of rallid lineages. A strict consensus tree of 20,000 shortest trees compiled (length = 1232, CI = 0.463) confirmed the interfamilial relationships resolved in the ordinal analysis and established a number of other, variably supported groups within the Rallidae. Groupings within the Rallidae included: monophyly of Rallidae exclusive of
Himantornis
and a clade comprising
Porphyrio
(including
Notornis
) and
Porphyrula
; a poorly resolved, basal group of genera including
Gymnocrex
,
Habroptila
,
Eulabeornis
,
Aramides
,
Canirallus
and
Mentocrex
; an intermediate grade comprising
Anurolimnas
,
Amaurolimnas
, and
Rougetius
; monophyly of two major subdivisions of remaining rallids, one comprising
Rallina
(paraphyletic),
Rallicula
, and
Sarothrura
, and the other comprising the apparently paraphyletic ‘long–billed’ rails (e.g.
Pardirallus
,
Cyanolimnas
,
Rallus
,
Gallirallus
and
Cabalus
and a variably resolved clade comprising ‘crakes’ (e.g.
Atlantisia
,
Laterallus
and
Porzana
, waterhens (
Amaurornis
), moorhens (
Gallinula
and allied genera) and coots (
Fulica
). Relationships among ‘crakes’ remain poorly resolved;
Laterallus
may be paraphyletic, and
Porzana
is evidently polyphyletic and poses substantial challenges for reconciliation with current taxonomy. Relationships among the species of waterhens, moorhens and coots, however, were comparatively well resolved, and exhaustive, fine–scale analyses of several genera (
Grus
,
Porphyrio
,
Aramides
,
Rallus
,
Laterallus
and
Fulica
) and species complexes (
Porphyrio porphyrio
–group,
Gallirallus philippensis
–group and
Fulica americana
–group) revealed additional topological likelihoods. Many nodes shared by a majority of the shortest trees under equal weighting were common to all shortest trees found following one or two iterations of successive weighting of characters. Provisional placements of selected subfossil rallids (e.g.
Diaphorapteryx
,
Aphanapteryx
and
Capellirallus
) were based on separate heuristic searches using the strict consensus tree for modern rallids as a backbone constraint.
These analyses were considered with respect to assessments of robustness, homoplasy related to flightlessness, challenges and importance of fossils in cladistic analysis, previously published studies and biogeography, and an annotated phylogenetic classification of the Gruiformes is proposed.
Phylogenetic relationships within the Pylochelidae (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguroidea): A cladistic analysis based on morphological characters
