Porzana | |
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Spotted crake (Porzana porzana) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Infraclass: | Neognathae |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: |
Porzana Vieillot, 1816 |
Type species | |
Rallus porzana Linnaeus, 1766 |
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Diversity | |
11 living species Numerous extinct species (but see text) |
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Synonyms | |
Corethrura G.R.Gray, 1846 (but see text) |
Corethrura G.R.Gray, 1846 (but see text)
Limnocorax Peters, 1854 (but see text)
Zapornia Leach, 1816 (but see text)
Porzana is a genus of birds in the crake and rail family, (Rallidae). Its scientific name is derived from Venetian terms for small rails. The Spotted Crake (P. porzana) is the type species. The contents of this genus are disputed.
The genus unites the typical "crakes" found essentially anywhere in the world except desert and polar regions. It contains 13 living species, and 4–5 recently extinct ones. In addition, a large number of prehistorically extinct species known only from fossil or subfossil remains have been discovered. The genera Coturnicops, Crex (including Crecopsis) and Laterallus have been suggested to be closely related.
However, molecular phylogenetic analyses have confirmed the suspicion, raised in the late 20th century in the first cladistic studies of morphology, that the "genus" Porzana is rather an evolutionary grade, consisting of an assemblage of unrelated plesiomorphic rails. The striped and white-browed crakes (and sometimes the yellow-breasted crake) were sometimes united in Poliolimnas as they appear to share some apomorphies. As they are widely allopatric, their similarities are more likely convergent evolution, and they are now moved to a monotypic genus Aenigmatolimnas (striped crake) and included in Amaurornis (white-browed crake). This may, however, be premature, as Amaurornis seems polyphyletic itself. Similarly, Micropygia is maintained as monotypic genus for the ocellated crake until its relationships are fully resolved. The ash-throated crake, which was only tentatively placed in Porzana, has been united with the two former species of Neocrex in Mustelirallus; they are almost certainly closely related to Pardirallus.