Laterallus

Not to be confused with Lateralus or Lateralus (song).

Laterallus
Black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
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

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.

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]

  1. ^ "Rallidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  2. ^ Gray, George Robert (1855). Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum. London: British Museum. p. 120.
  3. ^ Jobling, J.A. (2019). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Laterallus". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive: Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  4. ^ Stervander, M.; Ryan, P.G.; Melo, M.; Hansson, B. (2019). "The origin of the world's smallest flightless bird, the Inaccessible Island rail Atlantisia rogersi (Aves: Rallidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 130: 92–98. Bibcode:2019MolPE.130...92S. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.007. PMID 30321695. S2CID 53024581.