Limpkin
| Limpkin | |
|---|---|
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| In Florida, USA | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: |
Aramidae Bonaparte, 1849 |
| Genus: |
Aramus Vieillot, 1816 |
| Species: | A. guarauna |
| Binomial name | |
|
Aramus guarauna (Linnaeus, 1766) |
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| Range of A. guarauna | |
The limpkin (Aramus guarauna), also called carrao, courlan, and crying bird, is a bird that looks like a large rail but is skeletally closer to cranes. It is the only extant species in the genus Aramus and the family Aramidae. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas, from Florida to northern Argentina. It feeds on molluscs, with the diet dominated by apple snails of the genus Pomacea. Its name derives from its seeming limp when it walks.
The limpkin is placed in its own monotypic family, Aramidae, which is in turn placed within the crane and rail order Gruiformes. It had been suggested that the limpkin was close to the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, based upon shared bird lice. The Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of birds, based upon DNA–DNA hybridization, suggested that the limpkin's closest relatives were the Heliornithidae finfoots, and Sibley and Monroe even placed the species in that family in 1990. More recent studies have found little support for this relationship. More recent DNA studies have confirmed a close relationship with particularly the cranes, with the limpkin remaining as a family close to the cranes and the two being sister taxa to the trumpeters.
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Wikipedia