''Rhizothera'' is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

genus in the family Phasianidae, native to

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 ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. They are the only genus in the tribe Rhizotherini. Established by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother ...

in 1841, it contains the following species: * Long-billed partridge (''Rhizothera longirostris'') * Dulit partridge (''Rhizothera dulitensis'') The name ''Rhizothera'' is constructed of two

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words: ''rhiza'', meaning "root" and ''thēras'', meaning "hunter". Although their taxonomic relationships were formerly a mystery, with some taxonomists placing them with the more basal genera such as ''

Arborophila ''Arborophila'' is a bird genus in the family Phasianidae. The genus has the second most members within the Galliformes after ''Pternistis'', although ''Arborophila'' species vary very little in bodily proportions with different species varying ...

'' and ''

Xenoperdix Forest partridges (''Xenoperdix'' sp.) are partridges, described only in 1994, consists of two species of African partridges that are most closely related to Southeast Asian hill partridges. Both species have boldly barred plumage and a red bil ...

'' that were formerly classified within the paraphyletic "

Perdicinae Perdicinae is a polyphyletic former subfamily of birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, regrouping the partridges, Old World quails, and francolins. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the pheasants, trago ...

" (this basal group is now known as

Rollulinae Rollulinae is a bird subfamily containing the jungle and wood partridges. They are the most basal member of the family Phasianidae, having diverged during the late Eocene or early Oligocene, about 30-35 million years ago. Many taxonomists former ...

), more recent phylogenetic studies place them as the sister group to the tribe

Phasianini Phasianini is a tribe of birds in the subfamily Phasianinae. It contains the true pheasants. Species in this tribe are found throughout Europe and Asia. This grouping was supported by a 2021 phylogenetic analysis of Galliformes Galliformes is ...

, which contains many well-known and widespread genera such as ''

Perdix ''Perdix'' is a genus of Galliform gamebirds known collectively as the 'true partridges'. These birds are unrelated to the subtropical species that have been named after the partridge due to similar size and morphology. Taxonomy The genus ''Pe ...

'' and ''

Phasianus The "typical" pheasant genus ''Phasianus'' in the family Phasianidae consists of two species. The genus name is Latin for pheasant. Taxonomy The genus ''Phasianus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edi ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2056866 Bird genera Taxa named by George Robert Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot