Stervander M., Chen G., Feng S. & Mayr G. 2025. Nesotrochidae, fam. nov. ‒ a new name for the New World cave rails Nesotrochis spp., Avian Systematics 2: 85–98.

Recent studies led to dramatic taxonomic revisions of the relationships of various rail-like birds. This is particularly true for cave rails from the New World (Nesotrochis spp.), which were long presumed to belong to the cosmopolitan rail family (Rallidae). Analyses of morphological data and mitochondrial genomes have revealed that cave rails are instead more closely related to the predominantly African flufftails and forest rails (Sarothruridae). These latter birds were long also considered to belong within the Rallidae but have instead been shown to be more closely related to finfoots (Heliornithidae), with which they form the taxon Heliornithes. Palaeogenomic studies further suggested a placement of adzebills (Aptornithidae) from New Zealand into the Heliornithes. We reanalysed available mitochondrial data, complemented by two new mitochondrial assemblies for the sarothrurid genera Rallicula and Mentocrex, and found Nesotrochis to be the sister taxon of the Aptornithidae, with an estimated divergence in the late Eocene. Nesotrochis and Aptornithidae could be merged into an expanded, broader-sense Aptornithidae, but not least because Aptornis deviates dramatically in terms of morphology thereby supporting its own family-level taxon, we assign Nesotrochis spp. to Nesotrochidae, fam. nov.