Systematics

Monotypic; no geographic variation is reported in Crax blumenbachii.

Described by Spix in 1825. Male and female originally described as separate species: the female as Crax blumenbachii, with a type locality of "State of Rio de Janeiro," and the male as Crax rubrirostris, with a type locality of "between Rio de Janeiro and Bahia" (Peters 1934).

Perreira and Baker (2004) investigated the phylogenetic relationships of species of Crax, based on DNA sequence data from six mitochondrial gene regions. They estimate that "the diversification of curassow[s] seems to have occurred from the Middle Miocene to the end of the Pliocene (9.5 to 1.6 Ma)." Their results suggest that Crax rubra (Great Curassow) is the basal species of curassow. The remaining species form two clades, with Crax alberti (Blue-billed Curassow) and Crax daubentoni (Yellow-knobbed Curassow) as one clade, and the remaining species in the second clade: alector (Black Curassow), globulosa (Wattled Curassow), fasciolata (Bare-faced Curassow), and blumenbachii. Within this group, globulosa is the basal species, and blumenbachii is sister to alector + fasciolata.