''Spatula'' is a

genus 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 n ...

or subgenus of ducks in the family

Anatidae The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating ...

that includes the shovelers,

garganey The garganey (''Spatula querquedula'') is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and across the Palearctic, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), Banglad ...

, and several species of American teals.

Taxonomy

The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in the genus ''

Anas ''Anas'' is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was s ...

''. 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 comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2009 found that the genus ''Anas'', as then defined, was non-monophyletic. Based on this published phylogeny, the genus ''Anas'' was split into four monophyletic genera with 10 species moved into the resurrected genus ''Spatula''. The genus ''Spatula'' had originally been proposed by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822. 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( ...

is the

northern shoveler The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Eur ...

. The name ''Spatula'' is the Latin word for "spoon", from which the English word " spatula" also originates.

Extant species

The genus contains 10 species:

Phylogeny

Cladogram based on the analysis of Gonzalez and colleagues published in 2009.

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Friedrich Boie {{Anseriformes-stub