So I've known for a while now that kookaburras are kingfishers. For some reason, this information caught me off guard, like I was expecting kookaburras to be part of their own special super-secret club, and no one else was allowed to join.
But no. That's not the case at all. The family Halcyonidae, kingfishers, is home to the genus Dacelo, which is the kookaburras. As a quick recap for those who have forgotten their biological classifications, just remember your amusingly bad English:
PLEASE COME OVER FOR GAME SOCCER
They taught us that on my very first day of university so that we could remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, in that order, but the degree to which the phrase doesn't actually make sense (and the fact that it skips out Kingdom altogether) stuck it in my head, which actually makes it pretty useful as a mnemonic.
Kookaburras, then, are classed as:
K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Aves
O: Coraciiformes
F: Halcyonidae
G: Dacelo
We'll ignore, for the moment, that contemporary biological classification hasn't really quite caught up to birds being in the clade of theropods (my favourite sub-order, incidentally), and just accept the relevant piece of information here: kookaburras are in the genus Dacelo which is defined in a few (fairly sketchy) places as 'Australasian kingfishers'. That's
their 'thing'. That is the kookaburra hood, that is the kookaburra's turf, and that makes the family Halcyonidae a cosmopolite.
Unfortunately, that is not to be confused with a polite cosmonaut.
...though I agree, that would be more awesome.
A cosmopolite is a type of creature that can be found just about anywhere in the world (as opposed to being anywhere that is not the world, because they are polite cosmonauts and have no need for our terrestrial realm). For example, the class Insecta is cosmopolitan, as is the species Homo sapiens.
The inclusion of Dacelo in Halcyonidae is important for the kingfisher krew because they're now also in the Cool Cosmo Club. They're living it up where ever they want, including Australasia, because as you'll recall, Dacelo are the Australasian kingfishers.
Let's back up a moment.
"Australasia?" dudes are saying in confused voices. "Can we not just quickly define where, exactly, 'Australasia' is?"
Of course we can, dudes! All you need do is ask.
According to Wikipedia, which is not only conveniently bookmarked here but generally 'good enough' (technical term there) in terms of information quality, 'Australasia' consists of
Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea
and some other little islands of which no one else has really heard (sorry, the rest of Australasia).
So quick recap, Dacelo is:
- kookaburras
- Australasian kingfishers
and Australasia is:
- Australia
- New Zealand
- New Guinea
- et. al
So then, it stands to reason that if we grab a species of kookaburra, from, say, New Guinea, then it will be in the genus Dacelo.
It's time to introduce you to my friend, Clytoceyx rex.
Unfortunately, that is not to be confused with Tyrannosaurus rex.
...though I agree, that would be more awesome.
C. rex, known more commonly as the shovel-billed kookaburra, is a kookaburra from New Guinea. It is also the only non-Dacelo kookaburra, and is the sole representative of the genus Clytoceyx.
This, to me, to be honest with you, seems silly, and like the problem is primarily a linguistic one. I can't actually find any more definitive criteria for Dacelo beyond "Australasian kingfisher", and Clytoceyx is even less documented. The former was formally identified by William Leach in 1815, and the latter by Richard Sharpe in 1880. Maybe Sharpe just didn't know about Dacelo? How well was biological taxonomy centralised in the late 19th century? Or is there an actual, real, noticeable difference between Dacelo and Clytoceyx that I just can't identify by comparing pictures on Google Images?
Unfortunately, these are not to be confused with rhetorical questions. They are 100% genuine, my friends, and I'm not about to whip out some killer bio facts and put you all in awe of my genius.
...though I agree, that would be more awesome.
Other interesting things I learnt today:
- Carbon-13 has a natural abundance of only about 1%
- The world's largest cannon on wheels, the Jaivana, was cast in 1720
- Enough people still buy (and use!) Sony's products for the PS3 hack to be a big deal
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