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Pygmy goose

Genus of birds

Summary

Genus of birds

  • Nettapus coromandelianus
  • Nettapus auritus

Pygmy geese are a group of very small "perching ducks" in the genus Nettapus which breed in the Old World tropics. They are the smallest of all wildfowl. As the "perching ducks" are a paraphyletic group, they need to be placed elsewhere. The initially assumed relationship with the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae has been questioned, and it appears they form a lineage in an ancient Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl, within which they are of unclear affinities. An undescribed fossil species from the late Hemphillian (5.0–4.1 mya) of Jalisco, central Mexico, has also been identified from the distal end of a tarsometatarsus. It is only record of the genus in the New World.

The genus Nettapus was erected by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1836. The name is from Ancient Greek nētta meaning "duck" and pous meaning "foot". It was thought that the type species, the African pygmy goose (Nettapus auritus), possessed the feet and body of a duck and the neck of a goose.

There are three extant species in the genus:

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
[[File:African pygmy goose, Nettapus auritus, at Muirhead Dams, Royal Macadamia Plantations, Machado, Limpopo, South Africa - male (26144126211).jpg120px]]Nettapus auritusAfrican pygmy gooseSub-Saharan Africa
[[File:Cotton Pgymy Goose I2- Kolkata IMG 4808.jpg120px]]Nettapus coromandelianusCotton pygmy goosenorthern Australia and Southeast Asia
[[File:Green Pygmy Goose 3009.jpg120px]]Nettapus pulchellusGreen pygmy goosenorthern Australia and southern New Guinea

Pygmy geese have short bills, rounded heads and short legs. They nest in tree holes.

References

References

  1. . ["Anatidae"](https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=14). *The Trust for Avian Systematics*.
  2. Sraml, M.. (1996). "Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes)". Australian Journal of Zoology.
  3. Steadman, D.. (2006). "Early Pliocene to early Pleistocene birds from central Mexico". [[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]], Instituto de Geología and Centro de Geociencias, Publicacion Especial.
  4. Brandt, Johann Friedrich von. (1836). "Descriptiones et icones animalium rossicorum novorum vel minus rite cognitorum". Jussu et sumptibus Academiae Scientiarum.
  5. Jobling, James A.. (2010). "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Christopher Helm.
  6. (2017). "Screamers, ducks, geese & swans". International Ornithologists' Union.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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