Meleagris gallopavo

Meleagris gallopavo Skull Replica or Turkey measures 4.3 inches, museum quality polyurethane resin. Meleagris gallopavo Skull Replica is 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA.

The Meleagris gallopavo or Turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, native to North America.

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) of eastern and central North America can be found in the forests of North America, from Mexico (where they were first domesticated in Mesoamerica) throughout the midwestern and eastern United States and into southeastern Canada.

Meleagris gallopavo or male Turkey’s have a distinctive fleshy wattle, called a snood, that hangs from the top of the beak.

In anatomical terms, a snood is an erectile, fleshy protuberance on the forehead of turkeys. Most of the time when the turkey is in a relaxed state, the snood is pale and 2 to 3 cm long.

When the male begins strutting (the courtship display), the snood engorges with blood, becomes redder and elongates several centimeters, hanging well below the beak.

Snoods are just one of the caruncles (small, fleshy excrescences) that can be found on turkeys.

While fighting, commercial turkeys often peck and pull at the snood, causing damage and bleeding. This often leads to further injurious pecking by other turkeys and sometimes results in cannibalism.

To prevent this, some farmers cut off the snood when the chick is young, a process known as “de-snooding”.

They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As with many large ground-feeding birds (order Galliformes), the male is bigger and much more colorful than the female.

Native to North America, the wild species was bred as domesticated turkey by indigenous peoples. It was this domesticated turkey that later reached Eurasia, during the Columbian exchange.

The earliest turkeys evolved in North America over 20 million years ago. They share a recent common ancestor with grouse, pheasants, and other fowl.

The wild turkey species is the ancestor of the domestic turkey, which was domesticated approximately 2,000 years ago.

The genus Meleagris was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek meaning “guineafowl”. The type species is the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).

Turkeys are classed in the family Phasianidae (pheasants, partridges, francolins, junglefowl, grouse, and relatives thereof) in the taxonomic order Galliformes.

They are close relatives of the grouse and are classified alongside them in the tribe Tetraonini.

Wild Turkeys nest on the ground in dead leaves at the bases of trees, under brush piles or thick shrubbery, or occasionally in open hayfields.

It takes hens about two weeks to lay a full complement of nine to 13 eggs.

Turkey eggs are similar to chicken eggs but larger and creamier. They can be white, cream-colored, brown, or speckled.