Gymnophaps

Taxonomy and systematics

Gymnophaps was initially thought to be most closely related to Columba, but the Australian ornithologist Tom Iredale suggested in 1956 that it was more closely related to the fruit dove genus Ptilinopus due to its arboreal and frugivorous nature. In 1963, the British ornithologist Derek Goodwin also hypothesised that Gymnophaps was more closely related to Ptilinopus and the imperial pigeon genus Ducula than Columba due to similarities in their plumage. A 2007 mitochondrial and nuclear DNA study of 41 pigeon genera by the Brazilian evolutionary biologist Sergio Pereira and colleagues found that Gymnophaps was most closely related to the topknot pigeon, this clade being sister to (the closest relative of) Hemiphaga. These three genera are further sister to another clade formed by Ptilinopus, the cloven-feathered dove, and Alectroenas, Ducula being the most basal genus in the group. The following cladogram shows the relationships within this group based on the study: