curassow n : large crested arboreal game bird of warm parts of the Americas having long legs and tails; highly esteemed as game and food

For the island, see Curaçao

Curassows are one of the three major groups of cracid birds. Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of Crax ranges north to Mexico. They form a distinct clade which is usually classified as the subfamily Cracinae.

• Genus Nothocrax
  • Nocturnal Curassow, Nothocrax urumutum
• Genus Mitu
  • Crestless Curassow, Mitu tomentosa
  • Alagoas Curassow, Mitu mitu - extinct in the wild (mid-late 1980s)
  • Salvin's Curassow, Mitu salvini
  • Razor-billed Curassow, Mitu tuberosa
• Genus Pauxi – Helmeted curassows
  • Northern Helmeted Curassow or simply Helmeted Curassow, Pauxi pauxi
  • Southern Helmeted Curassow or Horned Curassow, Pauxi unicornis
• Genus Crax
  • Great Curassow, Crax rubra
  • Blue-billed Curassow, Crax alberti
  • Yellow-knobbed Curassow, Crax daubentoni
  • Wattled Curassow, Crax globulosa
  • Red-billed Curassow Crax blumenbachii
  • Bare-faced Curassow, Crax fasciolata
  • Black Curassow, Crax alector''

Evolution

In line with the other 3 main lineages of cracids (chachalacas, true guans, and the Horned Guan), mt and nDNA sequence data indicates that the curassows diverged from their closest living relatives (probably the guans) at some time during the Oligocene, or c.35–20 mya (Pereira et al. 2002). This data must be considered preliminary until corroborated by material (e.g. fossil) evidence however.

What appears certain from analysis of the molecular data, calibrated against geological events that would have induced speciation is that there are 2 major lineages of curassows: one containing only Crax, and another made up of Mitu and Pauxi. The position of the peculiar Nocturnal Curassow is not well resolved; it might be closer to the latter, but in any case, it diverged around the same time as the split between the two major lineages. All curassow genera appear to have diverged, in fact, during the Tortonian (early Late Miocene): the initial split took place some 10–9 mya, and Pauxi diverged from Mitu some 8–7.4 mya (but see genus article).(Pereira & Baker 2004)

Unlike the other cracids, biogeography and phylogeny indicate that the extant lineages of curassows probably originated in the lowlands of the western/northwestern Amazonas basin, most likely in the general area where today, the borders of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela meet. In the two larger genera, vicariant speciation seems to have played a major role.(Pereira et al. 2002, Pereira & Baker 2004)

References

• Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & Baker, Allan J. (2004): Vicariant speciation of curassows (Aves, Cracidae): a hypothesis based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. Auk 121(3): 682-694. [English with Spanish abstract] DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0682:VSOCAC]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract HTML fulltext without images

• Pereira, Sérgio Luiz; Baker, Allan J.& Wajntal, Anita (2002): Combined nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences resolve generic relationships within the Cracidae (Galliformes, Aves). Systematic Biology 51(6): 946-958. PDF fulltext