Thinornis
| Thinornis | |
|---|---|
| Shore plover (Thinornis novaeseelandiae) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Charadriidae |
| Subfamily: | Charadriinae |
| Genus: | Thinornis G.R. Gray, 1845 |
| Type species | |
| Charadrius novaeseelandiae (shore plover) Gmelin, JF, 1789
| |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
Thinornis is a genus of plovers in the family Charadriidae.
Taxonomy
The genus Thinornis was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray to accommodate a single species, Thinornis rossii G.R. Gray, which is now considered a junior synonym of Charadrius novaeseelandiae J.F. Gmelin, the shore plover.[1][2] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek this meaning "beach" or "sand" with ornis meaning "bird".[3] Genetic studies have shown that Thinornis is sister to the genus Charadrius.[4][5]
The genus contains seven species:[6]
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hooded plover | Thinornis cucullatus | southern Australia, including Tasmania | |
| Shore plover | Thinornis novaeseelandiae | Chatham Islands | |
| Black-fronted dotterel | Thinornis melanops | Australia, western Tasmania and New Zealand | |
| Forbes's plover | Thinornis forbesi | grassland and rocky hillsides of western and central Africa | |
| Three-banded plover | Thinornis tricollaris | southern Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa | |
| Long-billed plover | Thinornis placidus | Manchuria and East Asia | |
| Little ringed plover | Thinornis dubius | Eurasia |
An additional species, the Auckland Islands shore plover (Thinornis rossii), known from just one specimen collected in 1840, is now generally considered to be a juvenile shore plover whose location was incorrectly recorded.[7]
References
- ^ Gray, George Robert (1844). "Birds". In Richardson, John; Gray, John Edward (eds.). The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, Under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, During the Years 1839-43. Vol. 1: Mammals and Birds. London: E. W. Janson. pp. 1–20 [11–12].
- ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 257.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Dos Remedios, N.; Lee, P.L.M.; Burke, T.; Székely, T.; Küpper, C. (2015). "North or south? Phylogenetic and biogeographic origins of a globally distributed avian clade". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 89: 151–159. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.04.010.
- ^ Černý, David; Natale, Rossy (2022). "Comprehensive taxon sampling and vetted fossils help clarify the time tree of shorebirds (Aves, Charadriiformes)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 177 107620. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107620.
- ^ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
- ^ Gill, Brian J.; Bell, B. D.; Chambers, G. K.; Medway, D. G.; Palma, R. L.; Scofield, R. P.; Tennyson, A. J. D.; Worthy, T. H. (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (4th ed.). Wellington, N.Z.: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-1-877385-59-9.
Further reading
- Les Christidis, Walter Boles: Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing. 2008. ISBN 978-0-643-06511-6