Laterallus
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laterallus is a genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae. These small, relatively short-billed terrestrial rails are found among dense vegetation near water in the Neotropics, although a single species, the black rail, also occurs in the United States.
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| Laterallus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Rufous-sided crake (Laterallus melanophalus) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Rallidae |
| Genus: | Laterallus Gray, G.R., 1855 |
| Type species | |
| Rallus melanophaius[1] Vieillot, 1819 | |
| Species | |
|
see text | |
Taxonomy
The genus was erected by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 with the rufous-sided crake (Laterallus melanophaius) as the type species.[2] The genus name is a portmanteau of Rallus lateralis, a synonym of the binomial name for the rufous-sided crake.[3] The authors of a molecular genetic study published in 2019 proposed that the yellow-breasted crake, the dot-winged crake, and the flightless Inaccessible Island rail should be moved to this genus.[4] Additional changes to the content of the genus were made based on the molecular phylogenetic study by Emiliano Depino and collaborators that was published in 2023.[5][6]
Species
The genus contains 11 species:[6]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Laterallus notatus | Speckled rail |  |
.jpg) | Laterallus spiloptera | Dot-winged crake |  |
 | Laterallus rogersi | Inaccessible Island rail | Inaccessible Island |
 | Laterallus jamaicensis | Black rail |  |
 | Laterallus spilonota | Galapagos crake |  |
.JPG) | Laterallus flaviventer | Yellow-breasted crake |  |
 | Laterallus exilis | Grey-breasted crake |  |
 | Laterallus albigularis | White-throated crake |  |
 | Laterallus ruber | Ruddy crake |  |
_(9149458595).jpg) | Laterallus levraudi | Rusty-flanked crake |  |
| | Laterallus melanophalus | Rufous-sided crake |  |
The rufous-faced crake (Rufirallus xenopterus), red-and-white crake (Rufirallus leucopyrrhus) and the black-banded crake (Rufirallus fasciatus) were formerly placed in this genus.[6]
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