''Sarkidiornis'' is a genus within the family

Anatidae The Anatidae are the biological family (biology), family of water birds that includes ducks, goose, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted f ...

comprising two species that inhabit aquatic environments in tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Africa and southern Asia.. ''Sarkidiornis'' is sometimes considered a monotypic genus with its sole member the knob-billed duck (''S. melanotos''), a cosmopolitan species.

Taxonomy

This genus was first described in 1838 by Thomas Campbell Eyton. The type species, ''Anser melanotos'' (''S. melanotos''), was originally described in 1769 by

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had ...

, based on a bird collected in what is now

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Etymologically, the term Sarkidiornis is derived from Greek, where sarkidion means "little meat" or "caruncle", and ornis means "bird". This name refers to the fleshy crest at the base of the male’s beak. Most taxonomic authorities, however, split the species into two:

References

Taxa named by Thomas Campbell Eyton {{Anseriformes-stub