Ground roller explained

The ground rollers, Brachypteraciidae, are a small family of non-migratory birds restricted to Madagascar. They are members of the order Coraciiformes and are most closely related to the rollers in the family Coraciidae.

Description

Ground rollers share the generally crow-like size and build of the true rollers, ranging from 25to(-) in length,^[1] and also hunt reptiles and large insects. They are more terrestrial than Coracidae species, and this is reflected in their longer legs and shorter, more rounded wings.

They lack the highly colourful appearance of the true rollers, and are duller in appearance, with striped or flecked plumage. They are much more elusive and shy than their relatives, and are normally difficult to find in the Malagasy forests.^[1] Often the hooting breeding call is all that betrays their presence.

These birds nest as solitary pairs in holes in the ground which they excavate themselves, unlike the true rollers, which rarely nest in ground holes and even then do not dig their own nests.^[1]

Taxonomy

The phylogenetic relationship between the six families that make up the order Coraciiformes is shown in the cladogram below.^{[2] [3] [4]} The number of species in each family is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).^[5]

mtDNA analyses confirmed the systematics of this group but indicated that merging Geobiastes into Brachypteracias, as was usually done since the 1960s, should be reversed at least until a more comprehensive review (e.g. supported by fossils) is possible (Kirchman et al., 2001). Also, 2000-year-old subfossil remains of ground rollers are known from the Holocene of Ampoza (Goodman, 2000); Eocene remains from Europe at first tentatively assigned to this family were later recognized as quite distinct (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000). Presently, there is no indication that ground rollers ever occurred anywhere outside Madagascar (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré, 2001).

Species

There are five extant species in four genera in the family Brachypteraciidae:

Image	Genus	Living species
	Brachypteracias	Short-legged ground roller, Brachypteracias leptosomus
	Geobiastes	Scaly ground roller, Geobiastes squamiger
	Uratelornis	Long-tailed ground roller, Uratelornis chimaera
	Atelornis	Pitta-like ground roller, Atelornis pittoides Rufous-headed ground roller, Atelornis crossleyi

An extinct species, the Ampoza ground roller (Brachypteracias langrandi), of presumed Holocene age, was described in 2000 based on a single humerus.^[6]

References

• Kirchman, Jeremy J.; Hackett, Shannon J.; Goodman, Steven M. & Bates, John M. (2001): Phylogeny and systematics of ground rollers (Brachypteraciidae) of Madagascar, Auk 118(4): 849–863. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0849:PASOGR]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
• Mayr, Gerald & Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (2000): Rollers (Aves: Coraciiformes. s.s.) from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Germany) and the Upper Eocene of the Quercy (France). J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 20(3): 533–546. DOI:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0533:RACSSF]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
• Mayr, Gerald & Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (2003): Phylogeny and fossil record of the Brachypteraciidae: A comment on Kirchman et al. (2001). Auk 120(1): 202–203. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0202:PAFROT]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
• Goodman, S.M. (2000). A description of a new species of Brachypteracias (Family Brachypteraciidae) from the Holocene of Madagascar. Ostrich 71 (1 & 2):p 318–322

External links

• Ground roller videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Don Roberson's Bird Families of the World

Notes and References

1. Book: Forshaw, Joseph. Forshaw, J. . Kemp, A.. 1991. Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. Merehurst Press. London. 147. 1-85391-186-0.
2. Prum . R.O. . Richard Prum . Berv . J.S. . Dornburg . A. . Field . D.J. . Townsend . J.P. . Lemmon . E.M. . Lemmon . A.R. . 2015 . A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing . Nature . 526 . 7574 . 569–573 . 10.1038/nature15697 . 26444237 . free . 2015Natur.526..569P .
3. Kuhl . H. . Frankl-Vilches . C. . Bakker . A. . Mayr . G. . Nikolaus . G. . Boerno . S.T. . Klages . S. . Timmermann . B. . Gahr . M. . 2021 . An unbiased molecular approach using 3′-UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 38 . 1 . 108-127 . 10.1093/molbev/msaa191 . free . 21.11116/0000-0007-B72A-C . free .
4. Stiller . J. . etal . 2024 . Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes . Nature . 629 . 851-860 . 10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1 . free . 11111414 .
5. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela C. Rasmussen . December 2023 . IOC World Bird List Version 14.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 17 June 2024 .
6. Goodman . Steven M. . 2000 . A description of a new species of Brachypteracias (Family Brachypteraciidae) from the Holocene of Madagascar . Ostrich . 71 . 1–2 . 318-322 . 10.1080/00306525.2000.9639941 .