Problemi di sistematica biologica nell'ambito della famiglia Cracidae (Galliformes)

Taibel, Alula M.

Atti della Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti della Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali, Série 8, Tome 42 (1967) no. 6, pp. 948-954

Résumé

After having recalled the numerous and sometimes profound disagreements between Authors on the systematics of the family Cracidae, and after having made evident how many of the most discussed forms show intermediate somatic characters between those of two species, the ranges of which come in contact, the Author supposes that these forms are natural hybrids. The close morpho-phisiological affinity of all the species of the single genus could produce fertile hybrids in both sexes, which, crossing inter se and back-crossing with the parental forms, would produce a number of different forms, as by is easy to verify examining the museological collections, linking by degrees those of the starting species. The hybridological experiments made by the Author do confirm the total fertility of the interspecific hybrids in the genus Crax and Penelope. The species presently admitted by the systematics in both genera (and presumably in all the other related genera of the family) are therefore to be considered simple subspecies of a highly polytypical single collective species. The systematics of the family are therefore simplified, and the number of genera is reduced to three only: Crax, Penelope and Oreophasis.