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*[[Red-tailed tropicbird]], ''Phaethon rubricauda''
*[[Red-tailed tropicbird]], ''Phaethon rubricauda''
*[[White-tailed tropicbird]], ''Phaethon lepturus''
*[[White-tailed tropicbird]], ''Phaethon lepturus''
Previously, tropicbirds were classified among the Pelecaniformes, in part due to similarities with the structure of the feet and lack of a brood patch. Questioning this placement would lead to research under Sibley and Ahlquist (1990)<ref>Sibley, C.G. and Ahlquist, J.E. 1990. ''Phylogeny and classification of birds''; Yale. Univ. Press, New Haven, Connecticut</ref>, and later by Hedges and Sibley (1994)<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC44917/</ref>, using DNA hybridization-based reconstructions. Yet at the time, the tropicbirds still remained within Pelecaniformes until the early 2000's, when recent research has shown that the tropicbirds and the prehistoric family Prophaethontidae were not related to any of the previous orders, so they were separated in the new order of the Phaethontiformes<ref>http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop449.htm</ref>.
==Diet==
==Diet==
==Threats==
==Threats==
Tropicbirds have always been used by the inhabitants of tropical islands. Polynesians have used the feathers as adornments<ref>http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/feathers-have-always-been-used-by-humans-as-decoration-and-status-symbols</ref>, and subsisted on its eggs and meat. Even today, nests are looted in many places. A much bigger threat to tropicbirds is introduced predators; the islands on which they breed had no known natural predators prior to man's arrival; once introduced, feral cats and rats took their toll<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940082918785079</ref>. On Christmas Island the current problem is the introduced crazy ant<ref>http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/nominations/ineligible-species/phaethon-lepturus-fulvus</ref>.The islands on which these birds breed are often so remote that there were no mammals to fear. Later, sailors exposed cats and rats there, devastating the local fauna. On such islands, the breeding succeed only on inaccessible cliffs. A study on the Kure Atoll has revealed that in some years 100% of the eggs and chicks have been predated on by rats<ref>https://www.jstor.org/stable/4084263?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents</ref><ref>https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/om/om016.pdf</ref>.
Tropicbirds have always been used by the inhabitants of tropical islands. Polynesians have used the feathers as adornments<ref>http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/feathers-have-always-been-used-by-humans-as-decoration-and-status-symbols</ref>, and subsisted on its eggs and meat. Even today, nests are looted in many places. A much bigger threat to tropicbirds is introduced predators; the islands on which they breed had no known natural predators prior to man's arrival; once introduced, feral cats and rats took their toll<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940082918785079</ref>. On Christmas Island the current problem is the introduced [[yellow crazy ant]] (''Anoplolepis gracilipes'')<ref>http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/nominations/ineligible-species/phaethon-lepturus-fulvus</ref>.The islands on which these birds breed are often so remote that there were no mammals to fear. Later, sailors exposed cats and rats there, devastating the local fauna. On such islands, the breeding succeed only on inaccessible cliffs. A study on the Kure Atoll has revealed that in some years 100% of the eggs and chicks have been predated on by rats<ref>https://www.jstor.org/stable/4084263?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents</ref><ref>https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/om/om016.pdf</ref>.
==Evolutionary claims==
According to the theory of [[evolution]], tropicbirds are considered old, with the genera ''Lithoptila'' and ''Prophaethon'' appearing in the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, and the genus ''Heliadornis'', considered the first true tropicbird, in the Miocene.
Creation science holds that the tropicbirds were created by an act of God during the creation week as described in chapter 1 of ''Genesis''. In support of divine creation it should be noted that all fossil remains indicate the sudden appearance of all animals fully-formed, without transitional forms present; in the tropicbird's example one would need fossil evidence showing the gradual reduction in size of the legs and feet. Very little fossil evidence of supposed tropicbird ancestors has been found to date, and in the case of''Heliadornis'', an identification and assumption was based upon a single humerus bone<ref>https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/1725/VZ_283_Belgian_Heliadornis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y</ref> found in Belgium, and three bones found in Maryland<ref>https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/1732/VZ_171_Heliadornis_Phaethontidae.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y</ref>, none of which were leg bones.
==References==
==References==