Ground roller

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Ground roller
Rufous-headed ground-roller (Atelornis crossleyi).jpg
Rufous-headed ground-roller (Atelornis crossleyi), in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Brachypteraciidae
Bonaparte, 1854
Genera
Synonyms

The ground rollers , Brachypteraciidae, are a small family of non-migratory birds restricted to Madagascar. They are members of the order Coraciiformes and are most closely related to the rollers in the family Coraciidae.

Contents

Description

Ground rollers share the generally crow-like size and build of the true rollers, ranging from 25 to 49 centimetres (9.8–19.3  in ) in length, [1] and also hunt reptiles and large insects. They are more terrestrial than Coracidae species, and this is reflected in their longer legs and shorter, more rounded wings.

They lack the highly colourful appearance of the true rollers, and are duller in appearance, with striped or flecked plumage. They are much more elusive and shy than their relatives, and are normally difficult to find in the Malagasy forests. [1] Often the hooting breeding call is all that betrays their presence.

These birds nest as solitary pairs in holes in the ground which they excavate themselves, unlike the true rollers, which rarely nest in ground holes and even then do not dig their own nests. [1]

Taxonomy

The phylogenetic relationship between the six families that make up the order Coraciiformes is shown in the cladogram below. [2] [3] [4] The number of species in each family is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). [5]

Coraciiformes

Meropidae – bee-eaters (31 species)

Brachypteraciidae – ground rollers (5 extant species)

Coraciidae – rollers (13 species)

Todidae – todies (5 species)

Momotidae – motmots (14 species)

Alcedinidae – kingfishers (118 species)

mtDNA analyses confirmed the systematics of this group but indicated that merging Geobiastes into Brachypteracias, as was usually done since the 1960s, should be reversed at least until a more comprehensive review (e.g. supported by fossils) is possible (Kirchman et al., 2001). Also, 2000-year-old subfossil remains of ground rollers are known from the Holocene of Ampoza (Goodman, 2000); Eocene remains from Europe at first tentatively assigned to this family were later recognized as quite distinct (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000). Presently, there is no indication that ground rollers ever occurred anywhere outside Madagascar (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré, 2001).

Species

There are five extant species in four genera in the family Brachypteraciidae:

ImageGenusLiving species
Short-legged Ground-roller, Masoala National Park, Madagascar.jpg Brachypteracias Lafresnaye, 1834
Naturalis Biodiversity Center - ZMA.AVES.722 - Brachypteracias squamigera Lafresnaye, 1838 - Brachypteraciidae - skin specimen.jpeg GeobiastesSharpe, 1871
Long-tailed Ground-roller, Mangily, Madagascar 3.jpg UratelornisRothschild, 1895
Atelornis pittoides -Zurich Zoologischer Garten-8a.jpg Atelornis Pucheran, 1846

An extinct species, the Ampoza ground roller (Brachypteracias langrandi), of presumed Holocene age, was described in 2000 based on a single humerus. [6]

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The long-tailed ground roller is a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae, placed in the monotypic genus Uratelornis. Endemic to arid spiny forests near the coast in southwestern Madagascar, this ground roller occurs at extremely low population densities throughout its habitat. This species requires shade and a deep layer of leaves on the ground, and it is absent from parts of the spiny forest lacking these features. It has no recognized subspecies, and its closest relative is the scaly ground roller. The long-tailed ground roller is the only ground roller to definitively display sexual dimorphism. It is a medium-sized bird with a plump silhouette and a long tail. The upperparts are dark brown with black streaks while the underparts are light gray. The white throat is framed by black malar stripes and a black breastband, and a white stripe is present at the base of the bill. Sky-blue feathers are visible at the edge of the wings and the tail. Calls are rarely made outside the breeding season, though multiple courtship calls are made.

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The rufous-headed ground roller is a species of bird in the ground roller family, Brachypteraciidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. There are currently five known species of ground rollers. Four of these species live in the eastern and central highland humid forests. Unlike the four other species, the fifth species lives in the dry southwestern spiny bushes of Madagascar. The Atelornis crossleyi species of the ground rollers lives with most of its family in humid forests. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the bird to be near-threatened because, although it is present in a number of protected areas, it is hunted for food and the forests in which it lives are threatened by slash-and-burn cultivation. The bird's scientific name commemorates Alfred Crossley who collected mammals, birds, butterflies and moths in Madagascar and Cameroon in the 1860s and 1870s. Many of these are in the Natural History Museum, London.

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The Ampoza ground roller was a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae. It is known only from a single humerus fossil discovered in 1929 in southwest Madagascar. Little is known about the species, but it is suggested that the bird's habitat becoming more arid was a contributing factor in its demise.

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<i>Eocoracias</i> Extinct genus of birds

Eocoracias is an extinct genus of bird related to modern rollers and other Coraciiformes such as kingfishers, bee-eaters, motmots, and todies. It contains one species, Eocoracias brachyptera, and it lived approximately 47 million years ago based on dating of the fossil site. It is known for a specimen having preserved non-iridescent structural coloration on its feathers, previously unknown in fossil birds. Fossils have been found at the Messel Pit in Germany.

References

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  2. Prum, R.O.; Berv, J.S.; Dornburg, A.; Field, D.J.; Townsend, J.P.; Lemmon, E.M.; Lemmon, A.R. (2015). "A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing". Nature. 526 (7574): 569–573. Bibcode:2015Natur.526..569P. doi: 10.1038/nature15697 . PMID   26444237.
  3. Kuhl, H.; Frankl-Vilches, C.; Bakker, A.; Mayr, G.; Nikolaus, G.; Boerno, S.T.; Klages, S.; Timmermann, B.; Gahr, M. (2021). "An unbiased molecular approach using 3′-UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (1): 108–127. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa191 . hdl: 21.11116/0000-0007-B72A-C .
  4. Stiller, J.; et al. (2024). "Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes". Nature. 629: 851–860. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1 . PMC   11111414 .
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "IOC World Bird List Version 14.1". International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  6. Goodman, Steven M. (2000). "A description of a new species of Brachypteracias (Family Brachypteraciidae) from the Holocene of Madagascar". Ostrich. 71 (1–2): 318–322. doi:10.1080/00306525.2000.9639941.