Otis (bird)
Genus of bustard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otis is a genus of bustard containing a single living species, the great bustard (Otis tarda).[1]
.jpg)
| Otis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Great bustard (Otis tarda) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Otidiformes |
| Family: | Otididae |
| Genus: | Otis Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Species | |
| |
Several extinct species are known, including the recently described Otis hellenica from the Turolian of Greece. At 19 kg (42 lb), it was larger than its extant relative.[2]
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae;[3] it came from the Greek name ὠτίς ōtis[4][5] taken from Natural History by Pliny the Elder published around 77 AD which briefly mentions a bird like it. These names were further mentioned by Pierre Belon in 1555 and Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1600.[6][7]
Linnaeus placed four species in the genus, but the type species was designated as the great bustard (Otis tarda) by George Robert Gray in 1840.[8]