Cairina

Taxobox

---

image_width = 240px
image_caption = A domestic Muscovy Duck ("Barbary Duck")
name = "Cairina"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Anseriformes
familia = Anatidae
genus = "Cairina"
genus_authority = Fleming, 1822
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = See text.

Cairina is a genus of ducks in the bird family Anatidae.

It has two species, which are similar anatomically but quite distinct in external morphology:

* Muscovy Duck, "Cairina moschata"
**"Cairina momelanotus", domesticated European species of the Muscovy Duck.Verify source|date=October 2007
* White-winged Wood Duck, "Cairina scutulata"

These were initially placed as type genus in the "Cairininae" (or "Cairinini"), a supposed group of "perching ducks" which was somewhat intermediate between dabbling ducks and shelducks. However, this assemblage turned out to be paraphyletic, and the "Cairina" species were moved to the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae, to which they seemed closest from the data available at that timeFact|date=February 2007.

Analysis of the mtDNA sequences of the cytochrome "b" and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 genes (Johnson & Sorenson, 1999), meanwhile, has indicated that this is probably not correct, and that moreover the two species usually united in "Cairina" are not even closely related to each other, which is also suggested by the biogeography of their distribution:

The Muscovy Duck seems a distant relative to the genus "Aix" which for example contains the North American Wood Duck. Together, they appear related to the shelducks and "C. moschata" would thus be placed in the Tadorninae.

The White-winged Wood Duck, on the other hand - which has sometimes been allied with the enigmatic Hartlaub's Duck (Madge & Burns, 1987) - should according to the molecular analysis moved to its old genus, "Asarcornis", and could in fact be a peculiar diving duck.

References

* Johnson, Kevin P. & Sorenson, Michael D. (1999): Phylogeny and biogeography of dabbling ducks (genus Anas): a comparison of molecular and morphological evidence. "Auk" 116(3): 792–805. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v116n03/p0792-p0805.pdf PDF fulltext]

* Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1987): "Wildfowl : an identification guide to the ducks, geese and swans of the world". Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7470-2201-1