Described by French naturalist

Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French Zoology, zoologist and author. He was the son of Nicolas Desmarest and the father of Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest. Career Desmarest was a disciple of Georges Cu ...

in 1826, the genus ''Calyptorhynchus'' has two species of cockatoos. They are all mostly black in colour, and the taxa may be differentiated partly by size and partly by small areas of red, grey, and yellow plumage, especially in the tail feathers. Studies based on the

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

12S gene fragment suggested that other sexually dichromatic species, the gang-gang cockatoo and the cockatiel may be the closest living relatives of ''Calyptorhynchus''. However, subsequent studies, including more genes confirm the morphological taxonomy with the gang-gang cockatoo most closely related to the galah, within the white cockatoo group, and with the cockatiel as a third distinct subfamily of cockatoos. The Yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Baudin's black cockatoo and Carnaby's black cockatoo were previously included in ''Calyptorhynchus'' as subgenus ''Zanda''. However, based on genetic divergence '' Zanda'' was recognised as a genus and the three species transferred out of ''Calyptorhynchus''.

References

Further reading