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The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution , occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming , floating on the water surface, and, in some cases, diving in at least shallow water.
Anseriformes is an order of birds belonging to the clade Galloanseres.It consists of 3 families, 58 genera and 171 living species. [1] [2] Extinct species assignment follows the Mikko's Phylogeny Archive [3] and Paleofile.com websites. [4]
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which includes over 170 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, geese, and swans.
This family is placed in the order Anseriformes, having the characteristic bill structure, but is considered to be distinct from the other families in this taxon. The related and extant families, Anhimidae ( screamers ) and Anatidae ( ducks , geese and swans ), contain all the other taxa.
The word "goose" is a direct descendant of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandra (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, respectively), West Frisian goes, gies and guoske, Dutch: gans, ganzen, ganzerik, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās and gæslingr, whence English gosling.
The avian family Anatidae, commonly called waterfowl, comprise the ducks, geese, and swans. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 174 Anatidae species distributed among 53 genera, 32 of which have only one species. Eight species on the list are extinct; they are marked (E).
1995a. Heterochrony and the evolution of avian flightlessness. In: McNamara KJ, ed. Evolutionary change and heterochrony. Chichester, UK: J. Wiley, 169–193. 1995b. A phylogenetic analysis of the whistling and white-backed ducks (Anatidae: Dendrocygninae) using morphological characters. Annals of Carnegie Museum 64:65–97. 1995c.
The screamers are three South American bird species placed in family Anhimidae.They were thought to be related to the Galliformes because of similar bills, but are more closely related to the family Anatidae, i.e. ducks and allies, [1] [2] and the magpie goose, [3] within the clade Anseriformes.