Chachalacas are
galliform
Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...
birds from the genus ''Ortalis''. These birds are found in wooded habitats in the far southern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
(
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
),
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and
Central and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly common even near humans, as their relatively small size makes them less desirable to hunters than their larger relatives. As agricultural pests, they have a ravenous appetite for tomatoes, melons, beans, and radishes and can ravage a small garden in short order. They travel in packs of six to twelve. They somewhat resemble the
guan
Guan may refer to:
* Guan (surname), several similar Chinese surnames
** Guān, Chinese surname
* Guan (state), ancient Chinese city-state
* Guan (bird), any of a number of bird species of the family Cracidae, of South and Central America
* Guan ( ...
s, and the two have commonly been placed in a
subfamily together, though the chachalacas are probably closer to the
curassows.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Ortalis'' was introduced (as ''Ortalida'') by the German naturalist
Blasius Merrem in 1786 with the
little chachalaca
The little chachalaca (''Ortalis motmot'') is a bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and possibly Colombia.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. B ...
(''Ortalis motmot'') as the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
. The generic name is derived from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
word όρταλις, meaning "pullet" or "
domestic hen." The common name derives from the
Nahuatl verb ''chachalaca'', meaning "to chatter." With a glottal stop at the end, ''chachalacah'' was an alternate name for the bird known as the ''chachalahtli''. All these words likely arose as an onomatopoeia for the four-noted cackle of the
plain chachalaca (''O. vetula''). The genus contains 16 species.
and
nuclear DNA
Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. I ...
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
data tentatively suggest that the chachalacas emerged as a distinct lineage during the
Oligocene, somewhere around 40–20
mya, possibly being the first lineage of modern cracids to evolve; this does agree with the known fossil record – including indeterminate, cracid-like birds – which very cautiously favors a north-to-south expansion of the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
.
[
]
Species
Prehistoric species
The cracids have a very poor fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
record, essentially being limited to a few chachalacas. The prehistoric species of the present genus, however, indicate that chachalacas most likely evolved
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
in North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
or northern Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
:
* ''Ortalis tantala'' (Early Miocene of Nebraska, USA)
* ''Ortalis pollicaris'' (Flint Hill Middle Miocene of South Dakota, USA)
* ''Ortalis affinis'' (Ogallala Early Pliocene of Trego County, Kansas, USA)
* ''Ortalis phengites'' (Snake Creek Early Pliocene of Sioux County, Nebraska, USA)[Wetmore, Alexander. 1923. Avian Fossils from the Miocene and Pliocene of Nebraska. ''Bulletin American Museum of Natural History'' XLVIII pp. 483-45]
Web access
/ref>
The Early Miocene fossil '' Boreortalis'' from Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
is also a chachalaca; it may actually be referrable to the extant genus.
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q777139