Pygmy goose explained

Pygmy geese are a group of very small "perching ducks" in the genus Nettapus which breed in the Old World tropics. They are the smallest of all wildfowl. As the "perching ducks" are a paraphyletic group,^[1] they need to be placed elsewhere. The initially assumed relationship with the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae has been questioned, and it appears they form a lineage in an ancient Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl, within which they are of unclear affinities.^[2] An undescribed fossil species from the late Hemphillian (5.0–4.1 mya) of Jalisco, central Mexico, has also been identified from the distal end of a tarsometatarsus. It is only record of the genus in the New World.^[3]

The genus Nettapus was erected by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1836.^[4] The name is from Ancient Greek nētta meaning "duck" and pous meaning "foot". It was thought that the type species, the African pygmy goose (Nettapus auritus), possessed the feet and body of a duck and the neck of a goose.^[5]

There are three extant species in the genus:^[6]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Nettapus auritus		Sub-Saharan Africa
	Nettapus coromandelianus		northern Australasia and Southeast Asia
	Nettapus pulchellus		northern Australia and southern New Guinea

Pygmy geese have short bills, rounded heads and short legs. They nest in tree holes.

See also

• Smallest organisms

Further reading

• Book: Madge, Steve . Burn, Hilary . 1987 . Wildfowl : an identification guide to the ducks, geese and swans of the world . . London . 0-7470-2201-1 . 190–193.

External links

• • • Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.

Notes and References

1. Livezey . Bradley C. . 1986 . A phylogenetic analysis of recent anseriform genera using morphological characters . . 103 . 4 . 737–754 . Full text.
2. Sraml . M. . Christidis . L. . Easteal . S. . Horn . P. . Collet . C. . 1996 . Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes) . Australian Journal of Zoology . 44 . 1 . 47–58 . 10.1071/ZO9960047.
3. Steadman . D. . Carranza-Castaneda, O. . 2006 . Early Pliocene to early Pleistocene birds from central Mexico . Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología and Centro de Geociencias, Publicacion Especial . 4 . 61–71 . 970-32-3895-5.
4. Book: Brandt, Johann Friedrich von . Johann Friedrich von Brandt . 1836 . Descriptiones et icones animalium rossicorum novorum vel minus rite cognitorum . Fasciculus 1: Aves . la . Jussu et sumptibus Academiae Scientiarum . 5 .
5. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 269 .
6. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2017 . Screamers, ducks, geese & swans . World Bird List Version 7.3 . International Ornithologists' Union . 7 November 2017 .