Rheidae

Rheiformes is an order that contains the family Rheidae (rheas). It is in the infraclass Paleognathae, which contains all ratites. Extant members are found in South America. While the IOC World Bird List and the Clements Checklist categorise Rheiformes as its own order, the BirdLife Data Zone includes rheas, along with ostriches, tinamous, cassowaries, emu, and kiwis, in the order Struthioniformes. Of the two extant species of rheas recognized by the IUCN Red List, as of 2022, Rhea americana is listed as near threatened, while Rhea pennata is listed as least concern. From 2014 to 2022, the IUCN recognised Rhea tarapacensis as a separate species, and listed it as near threatened in its last assessment in 2020; in 2022, it was again recognised as a subspecies of R. pennata.

Rheidae

Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
rheaPBDB
Sits inside
RheiformesPBDB
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 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 34 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 34 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 34 occurrencesMiocene — about 13 of 34 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 34 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 34 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

34 occurrences of Rheidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

34 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

11 formations

Santa Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°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°WMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WLuján — 37.00°S, 60.38°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WLagunilla del Plata — 31.05°S, 62.56°WAisol — 34.96°S, 68.54°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WChichinales — 39.13°S, 67.75°WToro Negro — 28.69°S, 68.31°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Rheidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rheidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Rheidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

636 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Rheidae, 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

25 references

Each of the 34 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. 13 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 Rheidae

Credit
Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rheidae 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 itRheiformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1849