''Serinus'' 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 small birds in the
finch
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...
family Fringillidae found in Europe and Africa. The birds usually have some yellow in their plumage. The genus was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist
Carl Ludwig Koch
Carl Ludwig Koch (21 September 1778 – 23 August 1857) was a German entomologist and arachnologist. He was responsible for classifying a great number of spiders, including the Brazilian whiteknee tarantula and common house spider. He was bo ...
. Its name is
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
for "canary-yellow".
Many species were at one time assigned to the genus but it became clear from
phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
studies of
mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences that the genus was
polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...
. This was confirmed by Dario Zuccon and coworkers in a comprehensive study of the finch family published in 2012. The authors suggested splitting the genus into two
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 ...
groups, a proposal that was accepted by the
International Ornithologists' Union
The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...
. The genus ''Serinus'' was restricted to the
European serin
The European serin, or simply the serin (''Serinus serinus''), is the smallest European species of the family of finches (Fringillidae) and is closely related to the Atlantic canary. Its diet consists mainly of a combination of buds and seeds.
...
and seven other species while a larger
clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
from Africa and Arabia was assigned to the resurrected genus ''
Crithagra
''Crithagra'' is a genus of small passerine birds in the finch family (Fringillidae). They live in Africa and Arabia.
The species in this genus were formerly assigned to the genus '' Serinus'', but phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nucl ...
''.
The genus contains eight species:
[
]
References
External links
Serin videos, photos and sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection
{{Taxonbar, from=Q827170
Fringillidae
Bird genera
Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Koch