![Mountain Peacock-Pheasant](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Mountain_Peacock-Pheasant.jpg)
The mountain peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron inopinatum''), also known as Rothschild's peacock-pheasant or mirror pheasant, is a medium-sized, up to 65 cm long, blackish brown
pheasant
Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...
with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The male has metallic blue ocelli on upperparts, green ocelli on tail of twenty feathers and two spurs on legs. Female has black ocelli on upperparts, unspurred legs and tail of eighteen feathers. The female is smaller and duller than male.
A shy and elusive bird, the mountain peacock-pheasant is distributed and
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to
montane forests
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...
of the central
Malay Peninsula. The diet consists mainly of berries, beetles and ants.
Mitochondrial DNA cytochrome ''b'' and
D-loop
In molecular biology, a displacement loop or D-loop is a DNA structure where the two strands of a double-stranded DNA molecule are separated for a stretch and held apart by a third strand of DNA. An R-loop is similar to a D-loop, but in this ca ...
as well as the
nuclear
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
* Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear space
*Nuclear ...
ovomucoid
Ovomucoid is a protein found in egg whites. It is a trypsin inhibitor with three protein domains of the Kazal domain family. The homologs from chickens (''Gallus gallus'') and especially turkeys (''Meleagris gallopavo'') are best characterize ...
intron G data confirms that this species belongs to a
clade together with the
bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant
The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron chalcurum'') is also known as the Sumatran peacock-pheasant. It is an Indonesian bird.
Description
The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant is a small, up to 56 cm long, dark brown pheasant with ...
,
Germain's peacock-pheasant
Germain's peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron germaini'') is a pheasant that is endemic to Indochina. The name commemorates the France, French colonial army's veterinary surgeon Louis Rodolphe Germain.
Description
The bird is a medium-sized, approx ...
and
grey peacock-pheasant (Kimball ''et al.'' 2001).
The molecular data suggests - though not with high confidence - that this species diverged from mainland stock earlier than the bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant. This is quite spurious, since its
biogeography and derived plumage, and the fact that it is a peninsular mountain endemic indicate it is derived from a fairly small
founder population
In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It was first fully outlined by Ernst Mayr in 1942, using ...
; this would confound molecular analyses. What seems clear is that the present species evolved from mainland Southeast Asian stock, probably during the
Late Pliocene
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
to
Early Pleistocene (3.6-1
myr[Note that the ]molecular clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleo ...
calibration method used by Kimball ''et al.'' (2001) is now known to be inappropriate, yielding far too low estimates in galliform birds.). The unique pattern of wings and tail thus is, contrary to long-held opinion, an
autapomorphy
In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to ...
, and the southern species of this clade - formerly separated in the genus ''Chalcurus'' - are probably not each other's closest relatives.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the mountain peacock-pheasant is evaluated as
Vulnerable on the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix III of
CITES
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
in
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
.
References
*Kimball, Rebecca T.; Braun, Edward L.; Ligon, J. David; Lucchini, Vittorio & Randi, Ettore (2001): A molecular phylogeny of the peacock-pheasants (Galliformes: ''Polyplectron'' spp.) indicates loss and reduction of ornamental traits and display behaviours. ''
Biol. J. Linn. Soc.'' 73(2): 187–198
HTML abstract
Footnotes
External links
* ARKive
images and movies of the mountain peacock-pheasant ''(Polyplectron inopinatum)''*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060615021656/http://www.rdb.or.id/detailbird.php?id=221 Red Data BookMovie of the wild (male) mountain peacock-pheasant, Malaysia
{{Taxonbar, from=Q117686
mountain peacock-pheasant
The mountain peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron inopinatum''), also known as Rothschild's peacock-pheasant or mirror pheasant, is a medium-sized, up to 65 cm long, blackish brown pheasant with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Bo ...
Birds of the Malay Peninsula
mountain peacock-pheasant
The mountain peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron inopinatum''), also known as Rothschild's peacock-pheasant or mirror pheasant, is a medium-sized, up to 65 cm long, blackish brown pheasant with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Bo ...