Otis
Temporal range: Miocene - Recent
Great bustard (Otis tarda)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Otidiformes
Family: Otididae
Genus: Otis
Linnaeus, 1758
Species
  • Otis tarda
  • †Otis hellenica
  • †Otis khosatzkii
  • †Otis paratetrax

Otis is a genus of bustard containing a single living species, the great bustard (Otis tarda).[1]

Several extinct species are known, including the recently described Otis hellenica from the Turolian of Greece. At 19 kg (42 lb), it was larger than its extant relative.[2]

Taxonomy

The genus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae;[3] it came from the Greek name ὠτίς ōtis[4][5] taken from Natural History by Pliny the Elder published around 77 AD which briefly mentions a bird like it. These names were further mentioned by Pierre Belon in 1555 and Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1600.[6][7]

Linnaeus placed four species in the genus, but the type species was designated as the great bustard (Otis tarda) by George Robert Gray in 1840.[8]

References

  1. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2023). "Turacos, bustards, cuckoos, mesites, sandgrouse". World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  2. ^ Boev, Z.N. (2013). "Otis hellenica sp. nov., a new Turolian bustard (Aves: Otididae) from Kryopigi (Chalkidiki, Greece)". Geologica Balcanica. 42 (1–3): 59–65. doi:10.52321/GeolBalc.42.1-3.59. S2CID 246377339.
  3. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 154.
  4. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, UK: Christopher Helm. p. 286. ISBN 978-1-4081-3326-2. OCLC 659731768.
  5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). "ὠτίς". A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library.
  6. ^ Belon, Pierre (1555). L'histoire de la natvre des oyseavx : avec levrs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du natvrel, escrite en sept livres (in French). Paris: Gilles Corrozet. pp. 235–237.
  7. ^ Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1637) [1600]. Vlyssis Aldrovandi philosophi ac medici Bononiensis historiam naturalem in gymnasio Bononiensi profitentis, Ornithologiae (in Latin). Vol. 2. Bononiae (Bologna, Italy): Apud Nicolaum Tebaldinum. p. 85.
  8. ^ Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 64.
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