Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of Crax ranges north to Mexico.

What appears certain from analysis of the molecular data, calibrated against geological events that would have induced speciation, is that there are 2 major lineages of curassows: one containing only Crax, and another made up of Mitu and Pauxi.

The position of the peculiar nocturnal curassow is not well resolved; it might be closer to the latter, but in any case, it diverged around the same time as the split between the two major lineages.

All curassow genera appear to have diverged, in fact, during the Tortonian (early Late Miocene): the initial split took place some 10–9 mya, and Pauxi diverged from Mitu some 8–7.4 mya (but see genus article).

(Pereira & Baker 2004) Unlike the other cracids, biogeography and phylogeny indicate that the extant lineages of curassows probably originated in the lowlands of the western/northwestern Amazonas basin, most likely in the general area where the borders of Brazil, Peru and Colombia meet.