The scaly ground roller (''Geobiastes squamiger'') is a species of

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 ...

in a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

in the

near-passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mor ...

family

Brachypteraciidae The ground rollers are a small family of non-migratory near-passerine birds restricted to Madagascar. They are related to the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers. They most resemble the latter group, and are sometimes considered a sub-family of ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to eastern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The scaly ground roller is found at elevations below , and one of the few birds of Madagascar to reside in lowland rainforest.

Morphology

Scaly ground rollers grow to between . The head is covered with a black and white scaly pattern. It is a copper brown color and has green wings, with white tips. The center of the tail is reddish-brown, and has blue tips and black marks. The underside is pale, with black crescents. Its gray bill is thick and long, and its legs are pink in color.

Ecology and behavior

The diet of the scaly ground roller mostly consists of invertebrates it collects from the ground but it does also eat vertebrates it can find. It has been reported to chiefly eat earthworms ('' Pheretima'' sp.) and centipedes ('' Scolopendra morsitons''), but spiders, frogs, lizards ('' Zonosaurus'' sp. and ''

Phelsuma ''Phelsuma'' is a large genus of geckos in the family Gekkonidae. Species in the genus ''Phelsuma'' are commonly referred to as day geckos. Some day geckos are seriously endangered and some are common, but all ''Phelsuma'' species are CITES App ...

'' sp.), and

tenrec A tenrec is any species of mammal within the afrotherian family Tenrecidae endemic to Madagascar. Tenrecs are wildly diverse; as a result of convergent evolution some resemble hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, rats, and mice. They occupy aquatic, a ...

s ('' Microgale'' sp.) have also been reported to be eaten by the ground roller. Nesting occurs in small burrows, ranging from wide and deep. The nests are generally found near sources of water and where there's great herbaceous ground coverage. The scaly ground roller lays its eggs from mid-October to early November, with a clutch size of one egg. Incubation is conducted solely by the female for a period of 18 days. During brooding, the female generally will remain with the egg while a male brings food to the nest. Both parents provide food for their young after hatching.

Taxonomy

This species taxon has been referred to by several other synonymous names until recently, including the following binomial names: * ''Brachypteracias squamigera'' Lafresnaye, 1838 * ''Atelornis squamirgera'' Pucheran, 1846 * ''Geobiastes squamigerus'' Hartlaub, 1877 Until the 2000s, the taxon was called ''Brachypteracias squamigera'', in the genus ''

Brachypteracias ''Brachypteracias'' is a small genus of birds in the ground-roller family Brachypteraciidae. The genus is endemic to Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, lin ...

''. The scaly ground roller, ''Geobiastes squamiger'', is in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus ''Geobiastes'', however was originally placed in the genus ''

'' in 1838 by

Frédéric de Lafresnaye Baron Nöel Frédéric Armand André de Lafresnaye (24 July 1783 – 14 July 1861) was a French ornithologist and collector. Lafresnaye was born into an aristocratic family at Chateau de La Fresnaye in Falaise, Normandy. He took an early inte ...

. The species was moved to ''Geobiastes'' to reflect its unclear

phylogenetic relationship 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 ...

with the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to its family Brachypteraciidae, '' Brachypteracias leptosomus''. The scaly ground roller also has a different tarsometatarsus to

hallux Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being '' digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being '' pl ...

measurement ratio compared to the genera ''Brachypteracias'', '' Uratelornis'', and '' Atelornis'', where the scaly ground roller has a smaller ratio (2.8) compared to the other genera (4.5). An enlarged tarsometatarsus may be a derived character in the family Brachypteraciidae.

Etymology

The generic name comes . Its specific epithet "''squamiger''" means "scale-bearing" in Latin, deriving .

Conservation status

The scaly ground roller is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and is considered by IUCN to be a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnera ...

. Although threatened by removal of its

ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for ...

, it is more resilient to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and forest conversion effects than other similar species. Climate change can result in further loss of its habitat. It may also face risks from human hunters and domesticated dogs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q768358 Brachypteraciidae Endemic birds of Madagascar Birds described in 1838 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Frédéric de Lafresnaye