science

Passerea

Passerea is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Passerea rather than just read about it. In short: Passerea is a taxon of neoavian birds that was proposed by Jarvis et al. (2014).

Key takeaways

Passerea belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Passerea to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Passerea from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Passerea is a taxon of neoavian birds that was proposed by Jarvis et al. (2014). Their genomic analysis recovered two major clades within Neoaves, Passerea and Columbea, and concluded that both clades appear to have many ecologically driven convergent traits. According to Jarvis (2014), these convergences include the foot-propelled diving trait of grebes in Columbea with loons and cormorants in Passerea; the wading-feeding trait of flamingos in Columbea with ibises and egrets in Passerea; and pigeons and sandgrouse in Columbea with shorebirds (killdeer) in Passerea. For Jarvis (2014), these long-known trait and morphological alliances suggest that some of the traditional nongenomic trait classifications are based on polyphyletic assemblages. Passerea was not recovered in other studies.

Phylogeny Cladogram of Passerea relationships based on Jarvis et al. (2014) with some clade names after Yuri et al. (2013) and Kimball et al. 2013.

The following cladogram illustrates the proposed relationships between bird clades of Passerea. This consensus phylogeny of birds is based on phylogenomic data, reflecting a recent phylogenomic supertree analysis per Stiller et al. (2024).

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Passerea

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Passerea claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Passerea before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Passerea ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Passerea

In research: Passerea appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Passerea in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Passerea is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bird stubs, Bird taxonomy, Neognathae, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Passerea outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Passerea in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Passerea means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Passerea out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Passerea in simple terms?

Passerea is a taxon of neoavian birds that was proposed by Jarvis et al. (2014).

Why does Passerea matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Passerea?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Passerea.