Opis

Small and medium-sized birds living mostly in reed beds and swamps covered with dense vegetation; they are characterized by a very narrow sternum and pelvis that make the body flattened mediolaterally (Mayr 2009); this construction enables efficient and noiseless squeezing through the thicket of vegetation; also characteristic elongated toes that allow you to walk on water vegetation and climb reeds (only one species - Himantornis haematopus from the tropical forests of Africa does not have this feature); in some species, toes are additionally provided with skin flaps that enable swimming (as in coots Fulica).

Synonimy

Zasięg czasowy

Some molecular studies suggest that the group emerged as early as the Late Cretaceous (ca. 86 Ma), but there is no fossil evidence for this (Taylor & Bonan 2019); many Eocene (56-33.8 Ma) fossils are known that may belong to rails, but they are too fragmentary and poorly preserved to be sure about their identity; the oldest certain rail species are Belgirallus oligocaenus and B. minutus from the Early Oligocene (34-31 Ma) of Belgium (Mayr 2009); these species closely resembled modern rails in structure and size, and like them had elongated toes; "younger" rail fossils are known from the Late Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of Europe, Asia, Egypt, North America, Argentina and New Zealand; currently 142-156 species are known (including 14-21 extinct in historical times; Taylor & Bonan 2019; Gill & Donsker 2019; Mielczarek & Kuziemko, 2019) distributed worldwide except Antarctica; in Poland, 7 breeding species, some known from numerous Pleistocene and Holocene remains found in many sites throughout the country (Bocheński et al. 2012).

Literatura

Bocheński Z., Bocheński Z.M. i Tomek T. 2012. A history of Polish birds. Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals. Polish Academy of Sciences. Kraków.

Gill, F. & Donsker, D (eds). 2019. IOC World Bird List (v9.2).

Mayr G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. 000 pp. Springer, Heidelberg.

Mielczarek, P. & Kuziemko, M. 2019. Kompletna lista ptaków świata. Wersja 2019-05-31.???

Taylor, B. & Bonan, A. 2019. Rails, Gallinules, Coots (Rallidae). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A., & de Juana, E. (eds). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. 000 pp. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.