Turkey (bird)
Overview
- For the familiar species, see Domestic turkey and Wild TurkeyWild TurkeyThe Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...
. For other uses, see Turkey (disambiguation)Turkey (disambiguation)Turkey primarily refers to:* Turkey, or the Republic of Turkey, a present-day Eurasian country* The historic state of the Ottoman Empire* European Turkey, a term used for Ottoman territories in Europe-Birds:...
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A turkey is a large bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey
Wild Turkey
The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...
, is native to the forests of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species. The other living species is Meleagris ocellata or the Ocellated Turkey
Ocellated Turkey
The Ocellated Turkey is a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula. A relative of the more common Wild Turkey , it was sometimes previously treated in a genus of its own but the differences between this species and Meleagris gallopavo are too small to justify generic...
, native to the forests of the Yucatán Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
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Turkeys are classed in the taxonomic
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
order
Order (biology)
In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
of Galliformes
Galliformes
Galliformes are an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game bird, containing turkey, grouse, chicken, New and Old World Quail, ptarmigan, partridge, pheasant, and the Cracidae. Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds or galliforms...
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