''Lophoceros'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of birds in the hornbill family,

Bucerotidae Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

, which are native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Lophoceros'' was introduced in 1833 by the German naturalists

Wilhelm Hemprich Wilhelm Friedrich Hemprich (24 June 1796 – 30 June 1825) was a German natural history, naturalist and explorer. Hemprich was born in Kłodzko, Glatz (Kłodzko), Prussian Silesia, and studied medicine at Breslau and Berlin. It was in Berlin that ...

and

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German Natural history, naturalist, zoologist, Botany, botanist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopy, microscopist. He is considered to be one of the most famous an ...

to accommodate ''Buceros, Lophoceros, forskålii''. This is now considered as a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of the

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. ...

of the

African grey hornbill The African grey hornbill (''Lophoceros nasutus'') is a member of the hornbill family of mainly tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World. It is a widespread resident breeder in much of sub-Saharan Africa and the southwest of the Arabi ...

(''Lophoceros nasutus nasutus''). The genus name comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

λόφος (''lóphos''), meaning "crest", and κέρας (''kéras''), meaning "horn". The species now placed in this genus were formerly included in the genus ''

Tockus ''Tockus'' is a genus of birds in the hornbill family, Bucerotidae, which are native to Africa. Description Hornbills in the genus ''Tockus'' are medium-sized African birds with triangular shaped curved bills. They can be found in tropical an ...

''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2013 found that ''Tockus'' was divided by a deep phylogenetic split into two major groups. The genus ''Lophoceros'' was therefore resurrected to contain one of these groups. See also the correction:

Species

The genus contains 8 species:

References

Bird genera Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa {{Bucerotiformes-stub