Blue pigeon

Blue pigeon
Seychelles blue pigeon
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Alectroenas
G.R. Gray, 1840
Species

see text

The blue pigeons are the bird species in the genus Alectroenas of the pigeon family. They are:

Taxonomy and evolution

George Robert Gray named a new genus, Alectroenas, for the Mauritius blue pigeon in 1840; alektruon means domestic cock and oinas means dove. Alectroenas nitidissima is the type species of the genus, which includes all blue pigeons.[1]

The Alectroenas blue pigeons are closely interrelated and occur widely throughout islands in the western Indian Ocean. They are allopatric and can therefore be regarded as a superspecies.[2] There are three extant species; the Madagascar blue pigeon, the Comoros blue pigeon, and the Seychelles blue pigeon.[3] The three Mascarene islands were home to a species each, which are all extinct; the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Rodrigues blue pigeon, and the Réunion blue pigeon.[4] Compared to other pigeons, the blue pigeons are medium to large, stocky, have comparatively long wings and tails. They all have distinct mobile hackles on thehead and neck. The tibiotarsus is comparatively long and the tarsometatarsus short.[1]

The blue pigeons perhaps colonised the Mascarenes, the Seychelles or a now submerged hot spot island by "island hopping" and evolved into a distinct genus there before reaching Madagascar.[5] Their closest genetic relative is the cloven-feathered dove, Drepanoptila holosericea, of New Caledonia, which they separated from 8–9 million years ago.[6] Their ancestral group appears to be the fruit doves, Ptilinopus, of Southeast Asia and Oceania.[7]

The extinct Rodrigues grey pigeon (Nesoenas rodericana) was once assigned to the genus Alectroenas, but this was erroneous. In reality, it probably belongs to an undescribed genus, as the sternum's shape is very dissimilar in its details to that of Alectroenas or Columba, and indeed to any other living genus of pigeons and doves. It is most similar to that of the Gallicolumba ground doves or to a miniature version of the sternum of a Ducula imperial pigeon.

References

  1. 1 2 Hume, J.P. 2011: Systematics, morphology, and ecology of pigeons and doves (Aves: Columbidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with three new species. ISSN 1175-5326 Zootaxa, 3124: 1-62. Preview ISBN 978-1-86977-825-5
  2. ↑ Goodwin, D. 1983, Pigeons and Doves of the World, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
  3. ↑ Shelley, G. E. (1883). "On the Columbidae of the Ethiopian Region". Ibis. 25 (3): 258–331. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1883.tb07172.x.
  4. ↑ Hume, J. P.; Walters, M. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: A & C Black. pp. 134–136. ISBN 1-4081-5725-X.
  5. ↑ Cheke, A. S.; Hume, J. P. (2008). Lost Land of the Dodo: an Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues. New Haven and London: T. & A. D. Poyser. pp. 22–115. ISBN 978-0-7136-6544-4.
  6. ↑ Pereira, S. L.; Johnson, K. P.; Clayton, D. H.; Baker, A. J. (2007). "Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences support a Cretaceous origin of Columbiformes and a dispersal-driven radiation in the Paleogene". Systematic Biology. 56 (4): 656–672. doi:10.1080/10635150701549672. PMID 17661233.
  7. ↑ Shapiro, B.; Sibthorpe, D.; Rambaut, A.; Austin, J.; Wragg, G. M.; Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P.; Lee, P. L. M.; Cooper, A. (2002). "Flight of the Dodo" (PDF). Science. 295 (5560): 1683. doi:10.1126/science.295.5560.1683. PMID 11872833. Supplementary information (HTML abstract) Free PDF Supplementary information

External links

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