Gallirallus
Sign in to saveGallirallus is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement.
Taxonomy · GBIF
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderGruiformes
- FamilyRallidae
via GBIF · CC0
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Description
- Species
- Species extinct before A.D. 1500
- References
- External links
Gallirallus is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement.
==Taxonomy== The genus Gallirallus was introduced in 1841 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye to accommodate a single species, Gallirallus brachypterus Lafresnaye. This is the type species. The name is a junior synonym of Rallus australis Sparman, 1786, the weka. The genus name is a portmanteau of the genera Gallus that had been introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 for the fowl, and the genus Rallus that had been introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the rails.