Goura (genus)
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The genus Goura Stephens, 1819 consist of three species of crowned pigeons. They are the largest members of the pigeon family. The three crowned pigeons are much alike and replace each other geographically.
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 Nicobar Pigeon and the Tooth-billed Pigeon of Samoa, the three Goura pigeons belong to a group of which the infamous Dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire are an offshoot lineage, but depending on which genetic sequence is analyzed, the placement of the crowned pigeon differs. They might belong to the Treroninae subfamily of the fruit-doves, but usually they are treated as a subfamily of their own, the Gourinae.
[edit] Species
- Western Crowned Pigeon, Goura cristata
- Southern Crowned Pigeon, Goura scheepmakeri
- Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Goura victoria
[edit] References
- Johnson, Kevin P. & Clayton, Dale H. (2000): Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genes Contain Similar Phylogenetic. Signal for Pigeons and Doves (Aves: Columbiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14(1): 141–151. PDF fulltext
- Shapiro, Beth; Sibthorpe, Dean; Rambaut, Andrew; Austin, Jeremy; Wragg, Graham M.; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf R. P.; Lee, Patricia L. M. & Cooper, Alan (2002): Flight of the Dodo. Science 295: 1683. DOI:10.1126/science.295.5560.1683 (HTML abstract) Supplementary information
