''Tyto'' 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 nom ...

of birds consisting of true barn owls, grass owls and masked owls that collectively make up all the species within the subfamily Tytoninae of the barn owl

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Tytonidae Barn-owls (family Tytonidae) are one of the two families of owls, the other being the true owls or typical owls, Strigidae. They are medium to large owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs wit ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Tyto'' was introduced in 1828 by the Swedish naturalist

Gustaf Johan Billberg Gustaf Johan Billberg (14 June 1772, Karlskrona – 26 November 1844, Stockholm) was a Swedish botanist, zoologist and anatomist, although professionally and by training he was a lawyer and used science and biology as an avocation. The plant g ...

with the

western barn owl The western barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is usually considered a subspecies group and together with the American barn owl group, the eastern barn owl group, and sometimes the Andaman masked owl make up the barn owl. The cosmopolitan barn owl is re ...

as 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 specime ...

. The name is from 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 p ...

''tutō'' meaning "owl". The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') was formerly considered to have a global distribution with around 28 subspecies. In the list of birds maintained by

Frank Gill Frank Gill may refer to: * Frank Gill (Australian footballer) (1908–1970), Australian rules footballer with Carlton * Frank Gill (footballer, born 1948), footballer for Tranmere Rovers *Frank Gill (politician) (1917–1982), New Zealand politicia ...

Pamela Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. Sh ...

and David Donsker on behalf of the

International Ornithological Committee 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 ...

(IOC) the barn owl is now split into four species: the

(''Tyto alba'') (10 subspecies), the

American barn owl The American barn owl (''Tyto furcata'') is usually considered a subspecies group and together with the western barn owl group, the eastern barn owl group, and sometimes the Andaman masked owl, make up the barn owl, cosmopolitan in range. The ba ...

(''Tyto furcata'') (12 subspecies), the

eastern barn owl The eastern barn owl (''Tyto javanica'') is usually considered a subspecies group and together with the American barn owl group, the western barn owl group, and sometimes the Andaman masked owl make up the barn owl. The cosmopolitan barn owl i ...

(''Tyto javanica'') (7 subspecies) and the

Andaman masked owl The Andaman masked owl (''Tyto deroepstorffi'') is a barn owl endemic to the southern Andaman Islands, an archipelago between India and Myanmar, in the Bay of Bengal.Bruce, M.D., Christie, D.A., Kirwan, G.M. & Marks, J.S. (2017). Common Barn-ow ...

(''Tyto deroepstorffi''). This arrangement is followed here. Some support for this split was provided by a molecular phylogenetic study by Vera Uva and collaborators published in 2018 that compared the DNA sequences of three mitochondrial and one nuclear loci. This split has not been adopted by other taxonomic authorities such as the Clements Checklist of Birds of the World maintained by members of Cornell University or by the list maintained by BirdLife International that is used by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

. The cladogram below is based on the 2018 phylogenetic study. The

(''Tyto deroepstorffi'') was not sampled. The

Manus masked owl The Manus masked owl (''Tyto manusi'') is a barn owl endemic to Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands. Some authors consider it a subspecies of Australian masked owl ''(Tyto novaehollandiae)''. It is a poorly known forest-dwelling species, whic ...

(''Tyto manusi'') was embedded in a clade with subspecies of the

Australian masked owl The Australian masked owl (''Tyto novaehollandiae'') is a barn owl of Southern New Guinea and the non-desert areas of Australia. Taxonomy Described subspecies of ''Tyto novaehollandiae'' include: * ''T. n. calabyi'' I.J. Mason, 1983, (southern ...

. Throughout their

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ary history, ''Tyto'' owls have shown a better capability to colonize islands than other owls. Several such island forms have become extinct, some long ago, but some in comparatively recent times. A number of insular barn owls from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

and the Caribbean were very large or truly gigantic species.

Extant species

Seventeen species are recognized:

Extinct species

;Known from ancient

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s: * ''Tyto sanctialbani'' (Middle - Late Miocene of Central Europe) - formerly in '' Strix''; includes ''T. campiterrae'' * '' Tyto robusta'' (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of the Gargano Peninsula, Italy) * '' Tyto gigantea'' (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of the Gargano Peninsula, Italy) * ''Tyto balearica'' (Late Miocene - Middle Pleistocene of the west-central Mediterranean) * ''Tyto mourerchauvireae'' (Middle Pleistocene of Sicily, Mediterranean) * ''Tyto jinniushanensis'' (Pleistocene of Jing Niu Shan, China) *''Tyto maniola'' – Cuban Dwarf Barn Owl (Late Pleistocene of Cuba) * ''Tyto'' sp. 1 * ''Tyto'' sp. 2 ;Late prehistoric extinctions usually known from subfossil remains: Tyto cavatica

* Mussau barn owl (''Tyto'' cf. ''novaehollandiae'') found in

Mussau Mussau Island is the largest island of St Matthias Islands, Papua New Guinea, at . It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The island is a noted Biodiversity hotspot with pristine primeval Rainforest Rainforest ...

Steadman (2006) * New Ireland greater barn owl (''Tyto'' cf. ''novaehollandiae'') found in New Ireland * New Ireland lesser barn owl (''Tyto'' cf. ''alba/aurantiaca'') found in New Ireland * New Caledonian barn owl (''Tyto letocarti'') found in New Caledonia - tentatively placed here *

Puerto Rican barn owl The Puerto Rican barn owl (''Tyto cavatica'') is an extinct species of barn owl that inhabited the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the ashy-faced owl (''Tyto glaucops''). References ...

(''Tyto cavatica'') found in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

- may still have existed up to 1912; possibly a subspecies of the

ashy-faced owl The ashy-faced owl (''Tyto glaucops'') is a species of owl in the family Tytonidae. It is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shr ...

(''Tyto glaucops'') * Noel's barn owl (''Tyto noeli'') found in Cuba * Rivero's barn owl (''Tyto riveroi'') found in Cuba * Cuban barn owl (''Tyto'' sp.) found in Cuba * Hispaniolan barn owl (''Tyto ostologa'') found in Hispaniola * Bahaman barn owl (''

Tyto pollens ''Tyto pollens'' is an extinct giant barn owl which lived in the Bahamas during the last Ice Age. Description It is only known from the partial remains of three individuals which have been collected on the islands of Little Exuma (the site was m ...

'') found in Little Exuma, New Providence, and maybe

Andros Island Andros Island is an archipelago within the Bahamas, the largest of the Bahamian Islands. Politically considered a single island, Andros in total has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros consis ...

, the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

- may have survived into the 16th century * Barbuda barn owl (''Tyto neddi'') found in Barbuda and possibly Antigua * Maltese barn owl (''Tyto melitensis'') found in Malta - formerly in '' Strix''; possibly a

paleosubspecies A chronospecies is a species derived from a sequential development pattern that involves continual and uniform changes from an extinct ancestral form on an evolutionary scale. The sequence of alterations eventually produces a population that is p ...

of ''Tyto alba''

Former species

A number of owl fossils were at one time assigned to the present genus, but are nowadays placed elsewhere. While there are clear differences in osteology between typical owls and barn owls, there has been

parallel evolution Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.Zhang, J. and Kumar, S. 1997Detection of convergent and paral ...

to some degree and thus isolated fossil bones cannot necessarily be assigned to either family without thorough study. Notably, the genus '' Strix'' has been misapplied by many early scientists as a "

wastebasket taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the sole purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined ...

" for many owls, including ''Tyto''. * ''Tyto antiqua'' (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of Quercy? - Early Miocene of France) was a barn owl of the prehistoric genus '' Prosybris''; this

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

might be a '' nomen nudum'', as the species was originally described in ''Strix'', this requires confirmation * ''Tyto edwardsi'' (Late Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France) was a strigid owl, but has not yet been reliably identified to a genus; it might belong in ''Strix'' or the European ''

Ninox ''Ninox'' is a genus of true owls comprising 36 species found in Asia and Australasia. Many species are known as hawk-owls or boobooks, but the northern hawk-owl (''Surnia ulula'') is not a member of this genus. Taxonomy The genus was introduced ...

''-like group. * ''Tyto ignota'' (Middle Miocene of Sansan, France) was a strigid owl of unclear affinities; while it might belong into ''Strix'', this requires confirmationMlíkovský (2002) * "TMT 164", a distal left tarsometatarsus of a supposed ''Tyto'' from the Middle Miocene Grive-Saint-Alban (France); might also belong in ''Prosybris'', as it is similar to ''Tyto antiqua''Ballmann (1969)

Description

They are darker on the back than the front, usually an orange-brown colour, the front being a paler version of the back or mottled, although there is considerable variation even amongst species. ''Tyto'' owls have a divided, heart-shaped facial disc, and lack the ear-like tufts of feathers found in many other owls. ''Tyto'' owls tend to be larger than bay owls. The name ''tyto (τυτώ)'' is

onomatopeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

Greek for owl.

Footnotes

References

* Ballmann, Peter (1969). Les Oiseaux miocènes de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère)

he Miocene birds of Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

'' Geobios'' 2: 157–204. rench with English abstract (HTML abstract) * Bruce, M.D. (1999). Family Tytonidae (Barn-owls). ''In:'' del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (eds): ''

Handbook of Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' Vol. 5 (Barn-owls to Hummingbirds): 34–75, plates 1–3. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. * Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002). ''Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe''. Ninox Press, Prague. PDF fulltext
* Olson, Storrs L. (1985). Section IX.C. Strigiformes. ''In:'' Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): ''Avian Biology'' 8: 129–132. Academic Press, New York. * Steadman, David William (2006). ''Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds''. University of Chicago Press. .

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q375716 Bird genera Extant Miocene first appearances