Thank you, Matthew! Glad to hear about your experience too.

Ha ha, that'd be pretty cool too. ;-)

Exactly!

Nope!

I am very pleased to note confirm that the application deadline has now been extended to 31 August. We look forward to your applications!

I think we might have enough Ravens not to have to incorporate you in the cupboards... 😉

Thanks, Steve!

Tease no longer, Alan! bsky.app/profile/ster...

I hope that you with your inclinations don't get too disappointed that it is a new family that is no longer around.

Finally, I must shout out to the journal Avian Systematics and EiC Trevor Worthy + wizard Steven Gregory. I've learned tons about nomenclature in the revisions and edits and the process has been fast and good.

No fees + Open Access, the journal just moved to www.avespress.com/avian-system....

I ran this side project for @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social & @nhm-london.bsky.social w great collabs: Gerald Mayr (Dr Bones & Rapid-write) and Chen Guangji & Feng Shaohong (of #B10K #Bird10K, saving the day when supposedly public data was not so public).

Special thx to Piotr Gryz for cave rail pic!

...so we described Nesotrochidae fam. nov., the cave rail family! They are (were) distinguished by a number of osteological characters, not least that the humerus has a large and ventrally protruding processus flexorius.

Voilá: Nesotrochidae Stervander, Chen, Feng & Mayr, 2025!

This fully supported topology presents three options: merge family Aptornithidae (adzebills) with (1) Nesotrochis or (2) that + current family Sarothruridae (flufftails)—or (3) award the cave rails family status as Nesotrochidae.

#1–2 seem unreasonable given the marked distinctness of adzebills...

Dated Bayesian analyses of 9,615 base pairs coding mitochondrial sequence, in 16 partitions w optimised substitution models, didn't result in the unresolved polytomy of Oswald et al. (2021). Neither was Nesotrochis sister with Sarothruridae, but split as sister from Aptornithidae 37 Mya!

—so we generated new mitogenomes for Madagascar Forest Rail (Mentocrex kioloides) and Forbes's Forest Rail (Rallicula forbesi), neither of them rails, but members of the flufftail family (Sarothruridae)!

The phylogenetic analyses bugged me a little, though, as I thought more rigorous DNA substitution model testing and partitioning (and RY-coding of third-codon positions) might provide more clarity... So I'd better test it! We used the same dataset—except data for two species were unavailable—