Lably
Skip to content

Amaurornis

Genus of birds

  • 1 min read
  • 1 chapter

Related on Lably

Through Morphology (biology)

Lab · Class 11Morphology of Flowering Plants — Animated Chapter FilmLab · Class 11Plant Morphology LabLab · Class 11Structural Organisation in Animals — Animated Chapter FilmLab · Class 11Animal Tissue Organisation

Taxonomy

The genus Amaurornis was erected by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853 with the plain bush-hen (Amaurornis olivacea) as the type species. The name comes from the Greek amauros, meaning "dusky" or "brown" and ornis, meaning "bird".

The New Guinea flightless rail was sometimes included in this genus, but more often held to constitute a distinct monotypic genus Megacrex. The first cladistic studies of rails, based on morphology, strongly suggested that Amaurornis as traditionally defined is not monophyletic, and that several species placed here are in fact closer to the small crakes traditionally placed in Porzana. This was subsequently confirmed by molecular data. However, these smallish species are probably not close to the large members of Porzana either, and would warrant re-establishment of the old genus Zapornia.

Species

The genus contains five species:

More in Animals

Monotypic taxonTaxonomic group with only one subordinate taxonSpecies descriptionFormal description of a discovered speciesParaphylyType of taxonomic groupIUCN Red ListInventory of the global conservation status of biological speciesSubtropicsGeographic and climate zoneCommon nameName generally used for a taxon, group of taxa or organism(s)