Of Late Miocene origin, the genus Syrmaticus originated from some pheasant species inhabiting the submontane to montane subtropical rainforest at the northwestern end of the Himalayas some 10-7 million years ago (mya) during the Tortonian - the genus is thus about as old as Gallus and originated somewhat before the time the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees finally diverged. The original long-tailed pheasant (which probably did not have an overly elongated tail back then) diverged from the ancestors of the Phasianus pheasants, which subsequently expanded across temperate Asia northwastwards of the initial range of Syrmaticus.