Carpodacus
| Rosefinches | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Pallas's rosefinch (Carpodacus roseus) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Fringillidae |
| Subfamily: | Carduelinae |
| Genus: |
Carpodacus (but see text) Kaup, 1829 |
| Species | |
|
See text. |
|
See text.
The rosefinches are a genus, Carpodacus, of passerine birds in the finch family Fringillidae. Most are called "rosefinches" and as the word implies, have various shades of red in their plumage. The common rosefinch is frequently called the "rosefinch". The genus name is from Ancient Greek karpos, "fruit" and dakno, "to bite".
The Carpodacus rosefinches occur throughout Eurasia, but the greatest diversity is found in the Sino-Himalayas suggesting that the species originated in this region.
In 2012 Zuccon and colleagues published a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of the finch family. Based both on their own results and those published earlier by other groups, they proposed a series of changes to the taxonomy. They found that the three North American rosefinches, Cassin's finch the purple finch and the house finch, formed a separate clade that was not closely related to the Palearctic rosefinches. They proposed moving the three species to a separate genus Haemorhous. This proposal was accepted by the International Ornithological Committee and the American Ornithologists' Union. Zuccon and colleagues also found that the common rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus) fell outside the core rosefinch clade and was a sister to the scarlet finch (at the time Haematospiza sipahi). They recommended that the common rosefinch should be moved to a new monotypic genus with the resurrected name of Erythrina. The British Ornithologists' Union accepted this proposal, but the International Ornithological Union chose instead to adopt a more inclusive Carpodacus which incorporated Haematospiza as well as the monotypic genus Chaunoproctus containing the extinct Bonin grosbeak. The long-tailed rosefinch that had previously been included in the monotypic genus Uragus was also moved into Carpodacus.
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