- "Shanks" redirects here. For other meanings, see Shanks (disambiguation) and Shank.
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Catoptrophorus |
Tringa is a genus of waders, containing the shanks and tattlers. They are mainly freshwater birds, often with brightly coloured legs as reflected in the English names of six species, as well as the specific names of two of these and the Green Sandpiper. They are typically associated with northern hemisphere temperate regions for breeding. Some of this group - notably the Green Sandpiper - nest in trees, using the old nests of other birds, usually thrushes. The Willet and the tattlers have recently been found to belong into Tringa; these genus changes were formally adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union in 2006.[1]
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Living species
These are listed in systematic sequence:
- Green Sandpiper, Tringa ochropus
- Solitary Sandpiper, Tringa solitaria
- Grey-tailed Tattler, Tringa brevipes - formerly Heteroscelus brevipes
- Wandering Tattler, Tringa incana - formerly Heteroscelus incanus
- Spotted Redshank, Tringa erythropus
- Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca
- Common Greenshank, Tringa nebularia
- Willet, Tringa semipalmata - formerly Catoptrophorus semipalmatus
- Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes
- Spotted Greenshank, Tringa guttifer
- Marsh Sandpiper, Tringa stagnatilis
- Common Redshank, Tringa totanus
- Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola
 Tringa legs are either red (Common Redshank, T. totanus), ... |
 ... yellow (Lesser Yellowlegs, T. flavipes), ... |
 ... pale green (Common Greenshank, T. nebularia), ... |
 ... or ochre (Green Sandpiper, T. ochropus) |
Systematics and evolution
Formerly in Heteroscelus
The shanks' and tattlers' closest relatives are sandpipers of the genera Actitis and Xenus. Together with these, they are related to the phalaropes, as well as the turnstones and calidrids[2]. The present group is now considered to make up the large genus Tringa and two very small ones, similar to the situation found in many other shorebird lineages such as calidrids, snipes and woodcocks, or gulls. The same study has indicated that some morphological characters such as details of the furcula and pelvis have evolved convergently and are no indicators of close relationship. Similarly, the leg/foot color wildly varies between close relatives, with the Spotted Redshank, the Greater Yellowlegs, and the Common Greenshank for example being more closely related among each other than to any other species in the group; the ancestral coloration of the legs and feet was fairly certainly drab buffish as in e.g. the Green Sandpiper. On the other hand, the molecular phylogeny reveals that the general habitus and size as well as the overall plumage pattern are good indicators of an evolutionary relationship in this group. The Spotted Greenshank, a rare and endangered species, was not available for molecular analyses. It is fairly aberrant and was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Pseudototanus. It appears closest overall to the semipalmata-flavipes and the stagnatilis-totanus-glareola groups, though it also has some similarities to the Greater Yellowlegs and Common Greenshank.
Fossil record
Fossil Tringa shanks are known at least since the Mio-/Pliocene about 5 million years ago (mya), possibly even since the Eo-/Oligocene (some 33-30 mya) which would be far earlier than most extant genera of birds. However, it is uncertain whether Tringa edwardsi indeed belongs into the present-day genus or is a distinct, ancestral form. The time of the shank-phalarope divergence has been tentatively dated at 22 mya, at the beginning of the Miocene[3]; no fossils are known dating close to that time, but even if the dating is largely conjectural, it suggests that T. edwardsi does indeed not belong into the modern genus. Indeed, molecular dating[4] - which is not too reliable however - indicates that the diversification into the known lineages occurred between 20 and 5 mya, which suggests that the evolutionary history of tattlers and relatives may not at all be documented by the known fossils.
- ?Tringa edwardsi (Quercy Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of Mouillac, France)
- Tringa sp. 1 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA)
- Tringa sp. 2 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA)
- Tringa antiqua (Late Pliocene of Meade County, USA)
- Tringa ameghini (Late Pleistocene of Talara Tar Seeps, Peru)
"Tringa" hoffmanni is now in Ludiortyx. While its relationships are disputed, it was not a charadriiform.
See also
Footnotes
References
- Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J.V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006): Forty-seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 123(3): 926–936. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[926:FSTTAO]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
- Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X.D.2.b. Scolopacidae. In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 174-175. Academic Press, New York.
- Paton, Tara A.; Baker, Allan J.; Groth, J.G. & Barrowclough, G.F. (2003): RAG-1 sequences resolve phylogenetic relationships within charadriiform birds. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 29(2): 268-278. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00098-8 (HTML abstract)
- Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & Baker, Alan J. (2005): Multiple Gene Evidence for Parallel Evolution and Retention of Ancestral Morphological States in the Shanks (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae). Condor 107(3): 514–526. DOI: 10.1650/0010-5422(2005)107[0514:MGEFPE]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
- van Tuinen, Marcel; Waterhouse, David & Dyke, Gareth J. (2004): Avian molecular systematics on the rebound: a fresh look at modern shorebird phylogenetic relationships. J. Avian Biol. 35(3): 191-194. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03362.x PDF fulltext
