Tringa

The genus Tringa was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The type species is the green sandpiper (Tringa ochropus). Species The genus contains 13 species. }} }} }} ==Systematics and evolution==

(T. flavipes, front) and greater yellowlegs (T. melanoleuca, behind) together, showing the difference in size (Tringa incana), formerly in Heteroscelus (Tringa semipalmata), formerly in monotypic Catoptrophorus 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. The large genus Tringa and the two very small genera which are most closely related form a phylogeny similar to the situation found in many other shorebird lineages such as calidrids, snipes and woodcocks, or gulls. The same study even if the dating is largely conjectural, it suggests that T. edwardsi does indeed not belong into the modern genus. Molecular dating—which is not too reliable, however—indicates that the diversification into the known lineages occurred between 20 and 5 mya. The fossil record contains species formerly separated in Totanus from the Early Miocene onwards. Although these are usually known from very scant remains, the fact that apparently apomorphic Tringa as well as a putative phalarope are known from about 23-22 mya indicates that the shank-phalarope group had already diverged into the modern genera by the start of the Miocene. The biogeography of living and fossil species—notably, the rarity of the latter in well-researched North American sites—seems to suggest that Tringa originated in Eurasia. Time and place neatly coincide with the disappearance of the last vestiges of the Turgai Sea, and this process may well have been a major factor in the separation of the genera in the shank-phalarope clade. Still, scolopacids are very similar osteologically, and many of the early fossils of presumed shanks require revaluation. • ?Tringa edwardsi (Quercy Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of Mouillac, France) • ?Tringa gracilis (Early Miocene of WC Europe) – calidrid? • ?Tringa lartetianus (Early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France) • Tringa spp. (Early Miocene of Ravolzhausen, Germany – Early Pleistocene of Europe) • ?Tringa grivensis (Middle Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France) • ?Tringa majori (Middle Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France) • ?Tringa minor (Middle Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France) – includes "Erolia" ennouchii; calidriid? • ?Tringa grigorescui (Middle Miocene of Ciobăniţa, Romania) • ?Tringa scarabellii (Late Miocene of Senigallia, Italy) • 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 numenioides (Early Pliocene of Odesa, Ukraine) • 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==