''Pyrocephalus'' 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 bird in the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. The genus was introduced by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1839 in

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's ''

Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle ''The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the Years 1832 to 1836'' is a 5-part book published unbound in nineteen numbers as they were ready, between February 1838 and October 1843. It was writ ...

''. 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 ...

was designated as the

scarlet flycatcher The scarlet flycatcher or austral vermilion flycatcher (''Pyrocephalus rubinus'') is a species of flycatcher, closely related to the vermilion flycatcher. It is found in southeastern Bolivia and Brazil, Paraguay to Argentina and Uruguay. It is r ...

(''Pyrocephalus rubinus'') by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840. The name ''Pyrocephalus'' combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''purrhos'' meaning "flame-coloured" or "red" and ''-kephalos'' meaning "-headed".

Taxonomy

The tyrant flycatcher family, the Tyrannidae, is a group of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

birds present only in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, and its members are generally drab in coloration.del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Christie, D. (editors). (2004) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 9: Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails''. Lynx Edicions. Within it, the subfamily Fluvicolinae comprises the

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

''Pyrocephalus'', ''

Contopus The pewees are a genus, ''Contopus'', of small to medium-sized insect-eating birds in the Tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. These birds are known as pewees, from the call of one of the more common members of this vocal group. They are generall ...

'', '' Empidonax'', and '' Sayornis''. They likely shared a common ancestor in the ''

'' or ''

Xenotriccus ''Xenotriccus'' is a genus of bird in the family Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds known to exist i ...

'' genus before diversifying. The ''Pyrocephalus'' are most closely related to the ''Sayornis'' in terms of

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, but genetic analysis shows that they may be more closely related to the ''

Fluvicola ''Fluvicola'' is a genus of birds in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. The genus was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827. He designated the type species as the masked water tyrant (''Fluvicola nengeta'') in ...

''. The vermilion flycatcher likely evolved around 1.15–million years ago (mya), with the species on the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

having split off around 0.82–mya. The South American species/subspecies diverged about 0.56–mya.

Taxonomy

Species

Notes

References

External links