Strategies for More Clearly Delineating, Characterizing, and Inferring the Natural History of Baramins III: Evaluating Relationships and Proposing Post-Flood Dispersal, with Application to the Order Galliformes (Class: Aves)

In part I of this series, we laid out and applied a simple heuristic to the study of landfowl (traditional order Galliformes). We established that all families in this order share continuity consistent with them being identified as a created kind (baramin). In part II we took a closer look at the diversity and specializations that appear in various species of landfowl. Here, we continue our examination of the data, traditional characters as well as genome sequences, to understand relationships within the group, and propose likely routes of dispersal after the original ancestors of this baramin left the Ark. All of the currently accepted genera and more than 85% of the world�s landfowl have had their genomes examined in part or in whole, making this taxa ripe for barami­nological study. Our analysis has upheld much of the traditional classification but has given insight especially into the large family Phasianidae, including both the pheasants and the Old World quail and partridges. Of the 12 identified landfowl groups, eight are within the family Phasianidae. All of the genera of this family can be assigned to a group either unequivocally, or with a high degree of probability. We explore the novel suggestion of the African Rock Partridge (Ptilopachus) as a possible link to the New World quail, and uphold this conclusion. Further findings are discussed under each of the constituent groups. Finally, we show that dispersal of landfowl from the mountains of Ararat fits well with available data, with several lineages invading the New World, probably by more than one route.