As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Paragallinula: Ornithologists Describe New Bird Genus

Jan 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of ornithologists from Sweden and New Zealand has described a new genus for a bird species called the lesser moorhen.

The team, headed by Dr George Sangster from Swedish Museum of Natural History, named the new genus Paragallinula.

“The generic name is derived from the Greek para (beside) and the Latingallinula (a little hen or chicken),” Dr Sangster and co-authors wrote in a paper in the European Journal of Taxonomy.

“It denotes the resemblance of P. angulata to species of Gallinula but highlights that they are independent evolutionary lineages.”

According to the scientists, Paragallinula angulata is found in most of the African continent from Senegal and Gambia to Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

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