Palaeognathae

Palaeognathae is an infraclass of birds, called paleognaths or palaeognaths. It is one of the two infraclasses of birds, the other being Neognathae, both of which form Neornithes. Palaeognathae contains five extant orders consisting of four flightless lineages, termed ratites, and one flying lineage, the Neotropic tinamous. There are 47 species of tinamous, five of kiwis (Apteryx), three of cassowaries (Casuarius), one of emus (Dromaius), two of rheas (Rhea) and two of ostriches (Struthio). Recent research has indicated that paleognaths are monophyletic but the traditional taxonomic split between flightless and flighted forms is incorrect; tinamous are within the ratite radiation, meaning flightlessness arose independently multiple times via parallel evolution.

Palaeognathae

Bernard DUPONT User:Kore User:Kadellar Frank Vincentz The.Rohit No machine-readable author provided. Manuel Anastácio… · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NeornithesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 389 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 389 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 22 of 389 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 389 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 71 of 389 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 46 of 389 occurrencesPleistocene — about 119 of 389 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 3 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 5 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 4 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 9 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 12 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 10 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 23 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 43 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 231 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

389 occurrences of Palaeognathae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

389 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

75 formations

Olduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°EMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WSanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WSanta Cruz — 50.55°S, 69.22°WSanta Cruz — 47.52°S, 71.90°WSanta Cruz — 50.21°S, 69.72°WSanta Cruz — 50.25°S, 71.07°WSanta Cruz — 50.32°S, 68.90°WBannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EBannockburn — 44.89°S, 169.84°EBannockburn — 44.88°S, 169.75°ELondon Clay — 51.25°N, 0.75°ELondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.68°WLondon Clay — 51.70°N, 0.27°ELondon Clay — 51.50°N, 0.13°WWillwood — 43.03°N, 108.38°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.07°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 35.69°S, 64.67°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 37.02°S, 64.51°WNawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EJebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.50°N, 30.50°ENuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.67°WWaite — 23.70°S, 133.88°EWaite — 22.87°S, 134.87°EMampuwordu Sands — 27.75°S, 140.73°ETirari — 28.77°S, 138.42°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°WFur — 56.83°N, 8.75°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Palaeognathae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 226 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeognathae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Palaeognathae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,025 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 260 sites for Palaeognathae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

173 references

Each of the 389 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 161 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Palaeognathae

Credit
Bernard DUPONT User:Kore User:Kadellar Frank Vincentz The.Rohit No machine-readable author provided. Manuel Anastácio…
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeognathae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNeornithes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pycraft 1900)