Editing Columbidae (section)

===Taxonomy and systematics===
{{See also|List of Columbidae genera|List of Columbidae species}}

The name 'Columbidae' for the family was first used by the English zoologist [[William Elford Leach]] in a guide to the contents of the [[British Museum]] published in 1819.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Leach | first=William Elford | author-link=William Elford Leach  | year=1819 | chapter=Eleventh Room | title=Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum | location=London | publisher=British Museum | edition=15th | pages=63–68 [66] | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSlhAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA66 }} Although the name of the author is not specified in the document, Leach was the Keeper of Zoology at the time.</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Bock | first=Walter J. | author-link=Walter Joseph Bock | year=1994 | title=History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names | series=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History | volume= 222 | publisher=American Museum of Natural History | location=New York | pages=139, 245 | hdl=2246/830 | url=http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/830 }}<!--Linked page allows download of the 48MB pdf--><!-- Bock cites the 17th edition from 1820 but the name was included in the 15th edition published in 1819--></ref> However, Illiger in 1811 established an older name for the family group ("Columbini") and would actually be the proper authority for Columbidae.<ref name="Raphina2024"/>

The interrelationships of columbids (between subfamilies) and the ergotaxonomy of them has been debated, with many different interpretations of how they should be classified. As many as five to six families, along with many subfamilies and tribes, have been used in the past including the family Raphidae for the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire.<ref name="Allen2009">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLvMdtxHMC4C&pg=PA200|title=Pigeon|last=Allen|first=Barbara|date=2009|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-711-4}}</ref><ref name=Shapiro>{{cite journal|author=Janoo, Anwar |year=2005|title=Discovery of isolated dodo bones ''Raphus cucullatus'' (L.), Aves, Columbiformes from Mauritius cave shelters highlights human predation, with a comment on the status of the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930|doi=10.1016/j.annpal.2004.12.002|journal=Annales de Paléontologie|volume=91|issue=2|page=167|bibcode=2005AnPal..91..167J }}</ref><ref name="Chekeetal2010">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8xXSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA297|title=Lost Land of the Dodo: The Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues|last1=Cheke|first1=Anthony|last2=Hume|first2=Julian P.|date=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4081-3305-7}}</ref> A 2024 paper on the systematics and nomenclature of the dodo and the solitaire from Young and colleagues also provided an overview of columbid family-group nomina. They recommended recognizing three subfamilies: Columbinae (New World doves and quail-doves, and columbin doves), Claravinae (American ground-doves), and Raphinae (Old World doves and pigeons including the dodo and solitaire).<ref name="Raphina2024">{{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Mark T |last2=Hume |first2=Julian P |last3=Day |first3=Michael O |last4=Douglas |first4=Robert P |last5=Simmons |first5=Zoë M |last6=White |first6=Judith |last7=Heller |first7=Markus O |last8=Gostling |first8=Neil J |title=The systematics and nomenclature of the Dodo and the Solitaire (Aves: Columbidae), and an overview of columbid family-group nomina |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |date=2024 |volume=201 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae086|doi-access=free }}</ref> A 2025 paper on the molecular phylogenetic placement of the [[List of endemic birds of the West Indies|Cuban endemic]] blue-headed quail-dove from Oswald and colleagues found the species to be a [[sister group]] to Columbinae, as opposed to being a true columbine or a raphine as previous authors have suggested in the past. These authors recommended that the blue-headed quail-dove should be placed in fourth monotypic subfamily, Starnoenadinae.<ref name="Oswaldetal2025">{{Cite journal | last1=Oswald | first1=J.A. | last2=Boyd | first2=B.M. | last3=Szewczak | first3=A.R. | last4=LeFebvre | first4=M.J. | last5=Stucky | first5=B.J. | last6=Guralnick | first6=R.P. | last7=Johnson | first7=K.P. | last8=Allen | first8=J.M. | last9=Steadman | first9=D.W. | date=2025 | title=Genomic data reveal that the Cuban blue-headed quail-dove (''Starnoenas cyanocephala'') is a biogeographic relict | journal=Biology Letters | volume=21 | issue=1 | pages=20240464 | doi=10.1098/rsbl.2024.0464 | doi-access=free | pmid=39772915 | pmc=11706640 | pmc-embargo-date=January 8, 2026 }}</ref>

These taxonomic issues are exacerbated by columbids not being well [[Taphonomic bias|represented]] in the [[fossil record]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fountaine|first1=Toby M. R.|last2=Benton|first2=Michael J.|last3=Dyke|first3=Gareth J.|last4=Nudds|first4=Robert L.|date=2005|title=The quality of the fossil record of Mesozoic birds|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=272|issue=1560|pages=289–294|doi=10.1098/rspb.2004.2923|pmc=1634967|pmid=15705554}}</ref> with no truly [[Basal (phylogenetics)|primitive form]]s having been found to date.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} The genus ''[[Gerandia]]'' has been described from [[Early Miocene]] deposits in France, but while it was long believed to be a pigeon,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Olson|first1=Storrs L.|editor1-last=Farmer|editor1-first=Donald S.|editor2-last=King|editor2-first=James R.|editor3-last=Parkes|editor3-first=Kenneth C.|title=Avian Biology, Vol. VIII|date=1985|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-249408-6|pages=79–238|chapter=The fossil record of birds|quote=The earliest dove yet known, from the early Miocene (Aquitanian) of France, was a small species named Columba calcaria by Milne-Edwards (1867–1871) from a single humerus, for which Lambrecht (1933) later created the genus Gerandia|hdl=10088/6553}}</ref> it is now considered a [[sandgrouse]].<ref name=auk>{{cite journal|last1=Worthy|first1=Trevor H.|last2=Hand|first2=Suzanne J.|last3=Worthy|first3=Jennifer P.|last4=Tennyson|first4=Alan J. D.|last5=Scofield|first5=R. Paul|title=A large fruit pigeon (Columbidae) from the Early Miocene of New Zealand|journal=The Auk|date=2009|volume=126|issue=3|pages=649–656|doi=10.1525/auk.2009.08244|s2cid=86799657|quote=Because Columba calcaria Milne-Edwards, 1867–1871, from the Lower Miocene at Saint-Gérand-le-Puy in France, is now also considered a sandgrouse, as Gerandia calcaria (Mlíkovský 2002), there is no pre-Pliocene columbid record in Europe.|doi-access=free}}</ref> Fragmentary remains of a probably "[[Ptilinopus|ptilinopine]]" Early Miocene pigeon were found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as ''[[Rupephaps]]'';<ref name=auk/> ''"Columbina" prattae'' from roughly contemporary deposits of [[Florida]] is nowadays tentatively separated in ''[[Arenicolumba]]'', but its distinction from ''[[Columbina (bird)|Columbina]]/Scardafella'' and related genera needs to be more firmly established (e.g. by [[cladistic]] analysis).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=referenceInfo&reference_no=50415|title=Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=24 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124085345/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=referenceInfo&reference_no=50415|url-status=dead}}</ref> Apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_TB72RBLLMC&pg=PA110|title=Paleogene Fossil Birds|last=Mayr|first=Gerald|date=2009|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-89628-9}}</ref>