Crowned pigeons

Crowned pigeons
Victoria crowned pigeon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Columbiformes
Family:	Columbidae
Genus:	Goura Stephens, 1819

The three species of crowned pigeons (Goura) – the western crowned pigeon (Goura cristata), the southern crowned pigeon (Goura scheepmakeri) and the Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria) – are the largest extant pigeons (Columbidae). The three crowned pigeons are alike and replace each other geographically. The genus was described by James Francis Stephens in 1819.

The phylogeny of the crowned pigeons is not well resolved. Several molecular analyses have been conducted (e.g. Johnson &, 2000), with one (Shapiro et al., 2002) suggesting that along with the Nicobar pigeon and the tooth-billed pigeon of Samoa, the three Goura pigeons belong to a group of which the unfortunate dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire are an offshoot lineage, but depending on which genetic sequence is analyzed, the placement of the crowned pigeons differs. They might belong to the fruit-dove subfamily Treroninae, but usually they are treated as a subfamily of their own, the Gourinae.

The following cladogram, from Shapiro and colleagues (2002), shows their closest relationships within Columbidae, a clade consisting of generally ground-dwelling island endemics.

Goura victoria (Victoria crowned pigeon)

Caloenas nicobarica (Nicobar pigeon)

Pezophaps solitaria (Rodrigues solitaire)

Raphus cucullatus (dodo)

Didunculus strigirostris (tooth-billed pigeon)

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