Zenaida Doves
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 Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
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The Zenaida Doves (Zenaida) make up a small genus of American doves. There are 7 species:
- White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica
- Pacific Dove, Zenaida meloda
- Zenaida Dove, Zenaida aurita
- Galapagos Dove, Zenaida galapagoensis
- Eared Dove, Zenaida auriculata
- Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
- Socorro Dove, Zenaida graysoni (extinct in the wild)
DNA sequence analysis (Johnson & Clayton, 2000) confirms that the White-winged and Pacific doves are the most distinct and that they should be treated as good species. Relationships among the other species are quite unequivocal too; what is not quite clear is whether the Galapagos Dove is most closely related to the Zenaida Dove (as tentatively indicated by morphology) or to the Eared and Mourning Doves (as suggested by DNA sequences — although with a very low confidence level - and, most robustly, biogeography).
The name of this genus commemorates Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife of Charles Lucien Bonaparte.
[edit] References
- Johnson, Kevin P. & Clayton, Dale H. (2000): A Molecular Phylogeny of the Dove Genus Zenaida: Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA sequences. Condor 102(4): 864-870. PDF fulltext
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