''Laterallus'' 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 ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s in the

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Rallidae. These small, relatively short-billed

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

rails are found among dense vegetation near water in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

, although a single species, the black rail, also occurs in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by the English zoologist

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...

in 1855 with the rufous-sided crake (''Laterallus melanophaius'') as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

. The genus name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''Rallus lateralis'', a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

for the rufous-sided crake. The authors of a molecular genetic study published in 2019 proposed that the

yellow-breasted crake The yellow-breasted crake (''Laterallus flaviventer'') is a species of bird in the subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found on several Caribbean islands and in most of Central America and South Americ ...

, the dot-winged crake, and the flightless

Inaccessible Island rail The Inaccessible Island rail, or Inaccessible rail (''Laterallus rogersi'') is a small bird species of the rail family, Rallidae. Endemic to Inaccessible Island in the Tristan Archipelago in the isolated south Atlantic, it is the smallest ex ...

should be moved to this genus. Additional changes to the content of the genus were made based on the molecular phylogenetic study by Emiliano Depino and collaborators that was published in 2023.

Species

The genus contains 11 species: * Speckled rail, ''Laterallus notatus'' (formerly placed in the genus '' Coturnicops'') * Dot-winged crake, ''Laterallus spiloptera'' *

, ''Laterallus rogersi'' * Black rail, ''Laterallus jamaicensis'' * Galapagos crake, ''Laterallus spilonota'' *

Yellow-breasted crake The yellow-breasted crake (''Laterallus flaviventer'') is a species of bird in the subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found on several Caribbean islands and in most of Central America and South Americ ...

, ''Laterallus flaviventer'' * Grey-breasted crake, ''Laterallus exilis'' * White-throated crake, ''Laterallus albigularis'' * Ruddy crake, ''Laterallus ruber'' * Rusty-flanked crake, ''Laterallus levraudi'' * Rufous-sided crake, ''Laterallus melanophaius'' The rufous-faced crake (''Rufirallus xenopterus''), red-and-white crake (''Rufirallus leucopyrrhus'') and the black-banded crake (''Rufirallus fasciatus'') were formerly placed in this genus.

Taxonomy

Species

References

Further reading