Ratitae

Ratites are a polyphyletic group consisting of all birds within the infraclass Palaeognathae that lack keels and cannot fly. They are mostly large, long-necked, and long-legged, the exception being kiwi, which are the only nocturnal extant ratites.

Ratitae

Bernard DUPONT User:Kore User:Kadellar Donald Hobern · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PalaeognathaePBDB
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 159 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 159 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 159 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 159 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 159 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 159 occurrencesPleistocene — about 52 of 159 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 135 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

159 occurrences of Ratitae on record. 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

159 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

13 formations

Hillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°EBannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EBannockburn — 44.89°S, 169.84°EBannockburn — 44.88°S, 169.75°EWaite — 23.70°S, 133.88°EWaite — 22.87°S, 134.87°EMampuwordu Sands — 27.75°S, 140.73°ETirari — 28.77°S, 138.42°ELa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.67°WWipajiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°ECamfield Beds — 17.12°S, 131.52°EChinchilla Sand — 26.75°S, 150.63°EKatipiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°EOtibanda — 7.25°S, 146.50°EDunstan — 44.88°S, 169.75°EMoorna — 34.12°S, 141.65°E

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The named rock units Ratitae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 125 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

495 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Ratitae, and this reads all 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

28 references

Each of the 159 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. 16 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 Ratitae

Credit
Bernard DUPONT User:Kore User:Kadellar Donald Hobern
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ratitae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPalaeognathae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Merrem 1813)