''Rhizothera'' is a

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 ...

genus in the family

Phasianidae Phasianidae is a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, grouse, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hu ...

, native to

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. They are the only genus in the tribe Rhizotherini. Established by

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 1841, it contains the following species: * Long-billed partridge (''Rhizothera longirostris'') * Dulit partridge (''Rhizothera dulitensis'') The name ''Rhizothera'' is constructed of two

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

words: ''rhiza'', meaning "root" and ''-thēras'', meaning "-hunter". Although their taxonomic relationships were formerly a mystery, with some taxonomists placing them with the more basal genera such as '' Arborophila'' and '' Xenoperdix'' that were formerly classified within the paraphyletic "

Perdicinae Perdicinae is a polyphyletic former subfamily of birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, regrouping the partridges, Old World quails, and francolins. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the pheasants, tra ...

" (this basal group is now known as Rollulinae), more recent phylogenetic studies place them as the sister group to the tribe Phasianini, which contains many well-known and widespread genera such as '' Perdix'' and '' Phasianus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2056866 Bird genera Taxa named by George Robert Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot