Тинамулар тұқымдасы

Family of birds
Automatic taxobox
| name = Tinamous
| image = Elegant Crested Tinamou (Eudromia elegans) (15953728501). jpg
| image caption = Elegant crested tinamou (Eudromia elegans)
| fossil range =
| display parents = 3
| parent authority = Huxley, 1872
| taxon = Tinamidae
| authority = G. R. Gray, 1840 Tinamous are the only living group of palaeognaths able to fly, and were traditionally regarded as the sister group of the flightless ratites, but recent work places them well within the ratite radiation as most closely related to the extinct moa of New Zealand, implying flightlessness emerged among ratites multiple times. They are active during the day, retiring to roosts at night. They generally have cryptic plumage, with males and females similar in appearance, though the females are usually larger. They are opportunistic and omnivorous feeders, consuming a wide variety of plant and animal food from fruits and seeds to worms, insects and small vertebrates. They will dust bathe as well as wash themselves by standing in heavy rain. They are heard more often than seen, communicating with each other by a variety of frequently given, characteristic calls, especially during the breeding season. With occasional exceptions, a male tinamou maintains a territory and a nesting site during the breeding season which a succession of females will visit, laying their eggs in the same nest. Females will wander through several territories mating with, and laying eggs in the nests of, the resident males. Nests are always on the ground, concealed in vegetation or among rocks. Eggs are relatively large and glossy, often brightly colored when laid, and are incubated by the males for a period of 2–3 weeks. The chicks can run soon after hatching and are largely self sufficient at three weeks old. Tinamous and their eggs have many natural predators, from falcons and vampire bats to jaguars. They have also been extensively hunted by humans and sometimes persecuted as agricultural pests. However, the main threat to their populations is from habitat destruction through land clearing and agricultural development. Seven species are listed as vulnerable and another seven as near threatened. They feature in the mythology of the indigenous peoples of their range. Often translocated and easily bred in captivity, they have never been successfully domesticated.

The tinamou family consists of 46 extant species in nine genera. The two subfamilies are the Nothurinae (also known as the Rhyncotinae), the steppe tinamous, and the Tinaminae, the forest tinamous. "Tinamidae" was defined as by Gauthier and de Queiroz (2001): "Tinamidae refers to the crown clade stemming from the most recent common ancestor of Tetrao [Tinamus] major Gmelin 1789 and all extant birds sharing a more recent ancestor with that species than with Struthio camelus Linnaeus 1758 and Vultur gryphus Linnaeus 1758." Their similarity to other ground dwelling birds such as partridges and megapodes is a result of convergence and symplesiomorphy rather than shared evolutionary innovations. Of Gondwanan origin, tinamous are allied to the flightless ratites, together comprising the Palaeognathae ("old jaws"), while all other living birds are members of Neognathae ("new jaws"). Unlike other palaeognaths, tinamous do have a keeled sternum, but like the other palaeognaths, they have a distinctive palate. It was formerly believed that the Tinamiformes separated from the ratites early on due to their retention of a keeled sternum. The tinamous' possession of powder down feathers and preen glands, which the other ratites lack, was another source of confusion in evaluating their taxonomy. The tinamou family has been shown to be monophyletic. Research published starting in 2010 has found that tinamous are closest to the extinct moa of New Zealand; moa are more distantly related to the geographically proximate kiwis, emus and cassowaries than had been previously supposed. These findings imply that flightlessness evolved independently multiple times in ratite evolution. Flight may have been maintained in the tinamou family due to the rhea colonizing South America before ancestral tinamous arrived. The ecological niche for large, flightless herbivores was thus already occupied, forcing tinamous to retain smaller bodied, omnivorous, and volant lifestyles. The earliest unequivocally Tinamiforme fossil material dates from the Miocene,

Several tinamou fossils have been found in the 16–17 Mya Early Middle Miocene Santa Cruz Formation and the contemporary, or slightly older, Pinturas Formation, in Santa Cruz Province of Argentinian Patagonia, including a tinaminid, Crypturellus reai. Associated fossils indicate that the local palaeoenvironment at the beginning of this period was characterised by a humid, subtropical climate, with forest vegetation, becoming drier and more open with time. Some of the tinamou fossil material appears to be intermediate between the two subfamilies, suggesting that the period coincides with the origins of the radiation of the Nothurinae into the expanding open country habitats. Tinamous described from Pliocene material include Eudromia olsoni Tambussi & Tonni, 1985, Nothura parvulus Rovereto, 1914, and Nothura padulosa Mercerat, 1897. Fossils having affinities with several extant genera have been found in Pleistocene deposits.

The major threat for the forest tinamous is deforestation. Neotropical forests are badly affected, with large tracts being clearcut for cropping, pasture or timber plantations. Much of this land is poor in nutrients, so is abandoned after a few years for newly cleared land. Forest species are consequently forced to adapt, relocate, or die out. As well as the forests, most types of habitat in Middle and South America, apart from the high Andes and Patagonia, are under threat. There is controversy over the vegetative history with speculation that what is now high altitude grassland in the Andes was once elfin forest. The dwarf tinamou is a resident of the open plains of eastern Brazil, though there are fewer than 10,000 birds left. It appears to have disappeared from its former range on the grasslands of Argentina and Paraguay. In the cerrado grasslands of Brazil the population of the lesser nothura has also decreased to fewer than 10,000 individuals because of agricultural and economic development. The practice of burning the fields is particularly detrimental to grassland tinamous. For example, the dwarf tinamou becomes intoxicated with the smoke and vulnerable to predators. Moreover, if the burning occurs during the nesting season, the eggs or chicks are roasted. The solitary tinamou, limited to the Atlantic forests of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, is threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. In the cloud forests of northern South America, there are fewer than 10,000 black tinamous left. The tepui tinamou's range is limited to the tops of a handful of plateaus in the cloud forests of Venezuela, making it highly vulnerable to any threat.

Tinamous have been popular game birds for many years in South America and Central America, so much so that some species' numbers have dropped. The steppe birds are more popular to hunt because they can be flushed into flight, rather than the forest birds that run to cover and hide. In the late 19th and early 20th century hunting was responsible for mass killing within the family, with the elegant crested tinamou and spotted nothura popular targets. In 1921, Argentina urged the control of commercial hunting of several bird species, including tinamou. Between 1890 and 1899, in Buenos Aires alone, 18 million tinamou were sold in meat markets. They were also marketed in North America as "South American partridge". One shipment alone comprised 360,000 birds. Frank Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History helped raise awareness about the rate of exploitation and its potential impact on the populations of the species. Eventually, the USA banned the importation of the birds. Hunting pressures remain, though at a reduced level. For example, 25,000–40,000 spotted nothura are killed annually through legal hunting, not counting poaching. Although some grassland species have increased in both range and numbers, they remain vulnerable to hunting with the use of dogs to flush them. Native peoples also are involved in the killing tinamou for meat, catching them in nooses or traps after imitating their calls. A family of seven in Ceará will consume 60 nothura per year. Tinamou species are among the most commonly harvested birds by subsistence hunting in the Americas. Some species are highly vulnerable to illegal hunting, or poaching. In Brazil, illegal hunts take place at night by torchlight. The use of flutes to imitate the calls during the breeding season to lure the birds into the open can result in local extermination. Overall, there is a lack of adequate controls in place to ensure sustainable hunting, as well as insufficient resources and determination to enforce existing regulations.