The Sibley-Monroe checklist
was a landmark document in the study of birds conducted by Charles Sibley and
Burt Monroe. It drew on extensive DNA-DNA hybridization studies to reassess the
relationships between modern birds.
The Sibley-Monroe assignment of
individual species to families and of families to orders remains controversial
however. Critics maintain that while it marks a great leap forward so far as
the evidence from DNA-DNA hybridization goes, it pays insufficient attention to
other forms of evidence, both molecular and on a larger scale. There is no true
consensus but the broad middle-ground position is that the Sibley-Monroe
classification, overall, is "about 80% correct". The key question, of
course, is which 80%? Research and debate continue.
There are 9993 species on the
checklist, and this page continues in several parts, which are linked to below.
