Morphological evidence for the taxonomic status of the bridge’s guan, penelope bridgesi, with comments on the validity of P. Obscura bronzina (Aves: Cracidae)

Oscar Diego Evangelista-Vargas, Luís Fábio Silveira

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Penelope obscura Temminck, 1815 is a forest guan found in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia. Three subspecies are currently recognized: Penelope o. obscura Temminck, 1815, P. o. bridgesi Gray, 1860, and P. o. bronzina Hellmayr, 1914. The limits between Penelope taxa are poorly understood since few studies have evaluated their differences in plumage, distribution and taxonomy. Based on 104 specimens deposited in ornithological collections we studied the variations in the plumage of P. obscura, including all characters that have been used to describe the included subspecies. Our results show that the plumage of these birds is extremely variable in southern and southeastern Brazil. Without any morphological and morphometric characters to support P. o. bronzina as a valid taxon, we synonymized it with P. obscura. Conversely, P. o. bridgesi, which occurs in the Yungas and the Chaco, is a distinct taxon and should be treated as a separate species from P. obscura.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere12993
JournalZoologia
Volume35
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-mento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento do Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the grants received and for the financial support; Idea Wild for the equipment donated to DEV; the photographers who posted the photos in EcoRegistros and WikiAves websites. The curators and staff of the following institutions kindly welcomed us and allowed us to study the specimens under their care: MFN and ZSM (Germany); FMNH (USA); RNHL (Netherlands); BMNH (UK); MACN (Argentina); MNRJ, MHNCI and MCNRS (Brazil). We also thank Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Bio-diversidade (ICMBio/SISBIO) for issuing collecting permits. LFS is supported by a CNPq research productivity fellowship. George Sangster kindly reviewed the manuscript and offered important contributions to this text.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Pensoft Publishers. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Distribution
  • Morphology
  • Penelope
  • Taxonomy

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