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The 'chachalacas, guans' and 'curassows' are birds in the family 'Cracidae'.
These are species of tropical and subtropical Central and South America. One species, the Plain Chachalaca, just reaches southernmost Texas in the USA. Two species, the Trinidad Piping Guan and the Rufous-vented Chachalaca occur on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
These are large birds, similar in general appearance to turkeys. The guans and curassows live in trees, but the smaller chachalacas are found in more open scrubby habitats. Many species are fairly long tailed, which may be an aide to navigating their largely arboreal existence. They are generally dull-plumaged, but the curassows and some guans have colourful facial ornaments. Cracids range in size from the Little Chachalaca (''Ortalis motmot''), at as little as 38 cm (15 in) and 350 g (12.5 oz), to the Great Curassow (''Crax rubra''), at nearly 1 m (40 in) and 4.3 kg (9.5 lbs).
These species feed on fruit, insects and worms. The nest is built in a tree, and two to three large white eggs are laid; the female alone incubates.
The Cracidae are an ancient group related to the Australasian Mound-builders. They are sometimes united with these in a distinct order, 'Craciformes', but this is not supported by more recent research which suggests that either is a well-marked, basal lineage of Galliformes.

Contents

Systematics and evolution

Chachalacas

Horned Guan

Evolution

References

Footnotes

External links

Systematics and evolution

===True guans===
'Subfamily Penelopinae'

★ 'Genus ''Penelopina'''

★
★ Highland Guan, ''Penelopina nigra''

★ 'Genus ''Chamaepetes'''

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★ Black Guan, ''Chamaepetes unicolor''

★
★ Sickle-winged Guan, ''Chamaepetes goudotii''

★ 'Genus ''Penelope''' (15 species)

★ 'Genus ''Aburria''' - piping-guans (5 species, includes ''Pipile'')

Chachalacas

'Subfamily N.N.'^[1]

★ 'Genus ''Ortalis''' (12 species)

Horned Guan

'Subfamily Oreophasinae'

★ 'Genus ''Oreophasis''' - Horned Guan
===Curassows===
'Subfamily Cracinae'

★ 'Genus ''Nothocrax'''

★
★ Nocturnal Curassow, ''Nothocrax urumutum''

★ 'Genus ''Crax''' (7 species)

★ 'Genus ''Mitu'''

★
★ Crestless Curassow, ''Mitu tomentosa''

★
★ Salvin's Curassow, ''Mitu salvini''

★
★ Razor-billed Curassow, ''Mitu tuberosa''

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★ Alagoas Curassow, ''Mitu mitu''

★ 'Genus ''Pauxi''' - Helmeted curassows (2 species)
Alternatively, all subfamilies except the Penelopinae could be lumped into the Cracinae. As the initial radiation of cracids is not well resolved at present (see below), the system used here seems more appropriate. It is also quite probable that entirely extinct subfamilies exist as the fossil record is utterly incomplete.

Evolution

Recent research has analyzed mt and nDNA sequences, morphological, and biogeographical data to study the phylogenetic relationships of cracid birds, namely the relationships among the genera (Pereira ''et al.'', 2002), the relationships between the species of curassows (Pereira & Baker, 2004) and between the piping- and Wattled Guans (Grau ''et al.'', 2005). The traditional groups - chachalacas, guans, and curassows - are verified as distinct clades, but the Horned Guan represents the sole survivor of a very distinct and ancient lineage.
In addition, the molecular data suggest that the Cracidae originated in the Late Cretaceous, but the authors caution that this cannot be more than a hypothesis at present: as the rate of molecular evolution is neither constant over time nor uniform between genera and even species, dating based on molecular information has a very low accuracy over such long timespans and needs to be corroborated by fossil evidence. The fossil record of cracids is limited to a single doubtfully distinct genus of chachalaca, ''Boreortalis'' (Hawthorn Early Miocene of Florida, USA; may actually be a junior synonym of ''Ortalis'') and some species in the modern genus ''Ortalis'', however. This does not provide any assistance in evaluating the hypothesis (Pereira ''et al.'', 2002) that the split between the 4 main lineages of our time occurred quite rapidly, approximately in the Oligocene or slightly earlier, somewhere between 40 and 20 mya.
The genera ''Procrax'', ''Palaeonossax'' and ''Paleophasianus'' are often considered cracids, but this is not certain at all; they may belong to a related extinct lineage. It is unfortunate that of these too, few good fossils are known, as they date to about the time when the modern groups presumably diverged. Should they be cracids, they are not unlikely to represent either some of the last members of the family before guans, chachalacas, etc. evolved, or very early representatives of these lineages.
Thus, the assumption that the modern diversity started to evolve in the late Paleogene, continuing throughout the Miocene and onwards, must also be considered hypothetical given the lack of robust evidence. Still, the "molecular" scenario is entirely possible considering what is known about the evolution and radiation of the Galloanserae, and consistent with the paleogeography of the Americas. The ichnotaxon ''Tristraguloolithus cracioides'' is based on fossil eggshell fragments from the Late Cretaceous Oldman Formation of southern Alberta, Canada which are similar to chachalaca eggs (Zelenitsky ''et al'', 1996), but in the absence of bone material their relationships cannot be determined except that they are apparently not from a dinosaur.
By comparison, speciation within curassows (''Crax'', ''Nothocrax'', ''Pauxi'' and ''Mitu'') and the piping/wattled guans is supported by better evidence. It was usually caused by changes in topography which divided populations (vicariant speciation), mainly due to the uplift of the Andes which led to the establishment of the modern river basins. The distribution of curassow and piping-guan species for the most part follows the layout of these river systems, and in the latter case, apparently many extinctions of populations in lowland areas (Grau ''et al.'', 2005). Another result was that the Wattled Guan belongs to the same genus as the piping-guans, which thus use the older name ''Aburria'' (Grau ''et al.'', 2005).

References

★ 'Grau', Erwin T.; Pereira, Sérgio Luiz; Silveira, Luís Fábio; Höfling, Elizabeth & Wanjtal, Anita (2005): Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of Neotropical piping guans (Aves: Galliformes): ''Pipile'' Bonaparte, 1856 is synonym of ''Aburria'' Reichenbach, 1853. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' '35': 637-645. PDF fulltext

★ 'Pereira', Sérgio Luiz & 'Baker', Allan J. (2004): Vicariant speciation of curassows (Aves, Cracidae): a hypothesis based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. ''Auk'' '121'(3): 682-694. [English with Spanish abstract] DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0682:VSOCAC]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract HTML fulltext without images

★ 'Pereira', Sérgio Luiz; Baker, Allan J.& Wajntal, Anita (2002): Combined nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences resolve generic relationships within the Cracidae (Galliformes, Aves). ''Systematic Biology'' '51'(6): 946-958. PDF fulltext

★ 'Zelenitsky', Darla K.; Hills, L. V. & Currie, Philip J. (1996): Parataxonomic classification of ornithoid eggshell fragments from the Oldman Formation (Judith River Group; Upper Cretaceous), Southern Alberta. ''Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences'' '33'(12): 1655-1667.

Footnotes

1.
Though this group would also be classified at subfamily level, it has usually been lumped with the Penelopinae due to misinterpreted plesiomorphies (Pereira ''et al.'' 2002). In any case, the name Ortalinae is currently occupied.

External links

★ Cracidae videos on the Internet Bird Collection