''Emarginata'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that occur in southern Africa. The three

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the genus were previously placed in the genus ''Cercomela''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2010 found that ''Cercomela'' was polyphyletic and that the

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...

''Cercomela melanura'' (the blackstart) lay in a clade containing members of '' Oenanthe''. A more comprehensive study published in 2012 confirmed the earlier results. In order to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

genera the species assigned to ''Cercomela'' were moved into other genera. Three species were placed in the resurrected genus ''Emarginata'' that had been introduced by the English ornithologist

George Ernest Shelley Captain George Ernest Shelley (15 May 1840 – 29 November 1910) was an English geologist and ornithologist. He was a nephew of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley was educated at the Lycée de Versailles and served a few years in the Grenad ...

in 1896. The three species in the genus are: * Sickle-winged chat (''Emarginata sinuata'') * Karoo chat (''Emarginata schlegelii'') * Tractrac chat (''Emarginata tractrac'')

References

Bird genera Emarginata {{Muscicapidae-stub