Lophoceros is a genus of birds in the hornbill family, Bucerotidae, which are native to Africa.
Taxonomy The genus Lophoceros was introduced in 1833 by the German naturalists Wilhelm Hemprich and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg to accommodate Buceros, Lophoceros, forskålii. Although the year 1828 is printed on the title page, the volume was not published until 1833. See: This is now considered as a junior synonym of the nominate subspecies of the African grey hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus nasutus). The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek λόφος (lóphos), meaning "crest", and κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn".
The species now placed in this genus were formerly included in the genus Tockus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that Tockus was divided by a deep phylogenetic split into two major groups. The genus Lophoceros was therefore resurrected to contain one of these groups. See also the correction:
Species
The genus contains 8 species: Image Scientific name Common name Distribution Lophoceros alboterminatus Crowned hornbill northeastern Africa Lophoceros bradfieldi Bradfield's hornbill northern Botswana, southern Angola and eastern Zimbabwe Lophoceros fasciatus Congo pied hornbill Nigeria to northern Angola and Uganda Lophoceros semifasciatus West African pied hornbill Senegal and Gambia to southern Nigeria Lophoceros hemprichii Hemprich's hornbill Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda Lophoceros pallidirostris Pale-billed hornbill Angola, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Lophoceros nasutus African grey hornbill Sub-Saharan Africa and into Arabia Lophoceros camurus Red-billed dwarf hornbill Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Uganda.
References