 This genus contains 3 species
As indicated by analysis of mt and nDNA sequences and calibrated with geological data, this genus' ancestors probably diverged from those of "Mitu", their closest living relatives, in the Tortonian (early Late Miocene), some 8–7.4 mya.How the present distribution in 4 small areas quite distant from each other came to be is not known.Given that helmeted curassows are birds of the foothills and uplands, it might be that the ancestral "Pauxi" population became fragmented by the uplift of the Andes, which in their area of distribution took place during the Late Miocene, around the "Pauxi"-"Mitu" divergence and some time after.