Patagioenas is a genus of New World
pigeons whose distinctness from the genus
Columba was long disputed but ultimately confirmed. It is
basal to the
Columba-
Streptopelia radiation. Their ancestors diverged from that lineage probably over 8
million years ago. While the
biogeographic pattern of this group suggests that the ancestors of the typical pigeons and turtle-doves settled the
Old World from the
Americas,
Patagioenas may just as well be the offspring of
Old World pigeons which only
radiated into different genera later, given that the
cuckoo-doves (
Macropygia) of
Southeast Asia seem also close relatives.