Psittacopasseres

Psittacopasseres is a taxonofbirds consisting of the Passeriformes (passerines, a large group of perching birds) and Psittaciformes (parrots).^[3] Per Ericson and colleagues, in analysing genomic DNA, revealed a lineage comprising passerines, psittacines and Falconiformes.^[4] The group was proposed following an alignment of nuclear intron sequences by Shannon Hackett et al. in 2008.^[5] It was formally named as Psittacopasserae in a 2011 Nature Communications article by Alexander Suh and other authors working with Jürgen Schmitz's group,^[6] based on genetic analysis of the insertion of retroposons into the genomes of key avian lineages over the course of evolution during the Mesozoic Era.^{[clarification needed]}