Palaeotis is a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
of paleognath bird from the middle Eocene epoch of central Europe. One species is known,
Paleotis weigelti. The
holotypeA holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described...
specimen is a fossil
tarsometatarsusThe tarsometatarsus is a bone that is found in the lower leg of certain tetrapods, namely birds.It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsal and metatarsal bones....
and
phalanxPhalanx, from Ancient Greek , can have many meanings, as in the original Greek language. For example finnando is also a phalanx.Phalanx may refer to:-Military:* Phalanx formation, in ancient warfare* Phalanx CIWS, a U.S...
. Lambrect (1928) described it as an extinct
bustardBustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They make up the family Otididae . They were renowned by the ancient Arabs for being unusually stupid.Bustards are omnivorous and nest on the ground...
(genus
Otis), and gave it its consequent name (
Palaeotis means
ancient bustard). After a suggestion by Storrs L. Olson, a review of the type specimen and the referral of several other fossils by Houde and Haubold (1987) concluded that Paleotis is a neognathe and assigned it to the same
orderIn scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
as
ostrichThe ostrich, Struthio camelus, is a large flightless bird native to Africa. It is the only living species of its family, Struthionidae and its genus, Struthio. Ostriches share the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, and other ratites...
es; the Struthioniformes.
In the 1930s a nearly complete fossil with catalog number GM 4362 was assigned to
Palaeotis, probably by Lambrecht.
Palaeotis is a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
of paleognath bird from the middle Eocene epoch of central Europe. One species is known,
Paleotis weigelti. The
holotypeA holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described...
specimen is a fossil
tarsometatarsusThe tarsometatarsus is a bone that is found in the lower leg of certain tetrapods, namely birds.It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsal and metatarsal bones....
and
phalanxPhalanx, from Ancient Greek , can have many meanings, as in the original Greek language. For example finnando is also a phalanx.Phalanx may refer to:-Military:* Phalanx formation, in ancient warfare* Phalanx CIWS, a U.S...
. Lambrect (1928) described it as an extinct
bustardBustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They make up the family Otididae . They were renowned by the ancient Arabs for being unusually stupid.Bustards are omnivorous and nest on the ground...
(genus
Otis), and gave it its consequent name (
Palaeotis means
ancient bustard). After a suggestion by Storrs L. Olson, a review of the type specimen and the referral of several other fossils by Houde and Haubold (1987) concluded that Paleotis is a neognathe and assigned it to the same
orderIn scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
as
ostrichThe ostrich, Struthio camelus, is a large flightless bird native to Africa. It is the only living species of its family, Struthionidae and its genus, Struthio. Ostriches share the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, and other ratites...
es; the Struthioniformes.
In the 1930s a nearly complete fossil with catalog number GM 4362 was assigned to
Palaeotis, probably by Lambrecht. Houde and Haubold found three additional specimens in the collection of the Geiseltalmuseum, Martin-Luther University, Halle/S., Germany. One of those three is the holotype specimen of
Paleogrus geiseltalensis (=Ornithocnemus geiseltalensis, Lambrecht 1935). Houde and Haubold also requested permission to prepare a fossil cataloged as HLMD Me 7530 at the Hesseches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany. HLMD Me 7530 was collected from the famous Messel shales. When it was prepared, the two Ornithologists assigned it to Palaeotis as well.
Other scientists are less convinced that Palaeotis is a struthioniform, placing it instead as a more basal
ratiteA ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum - hence their name, which comes from the Latin for raft...
. It may be related to the mysterious
Remiornis, a putative ratite known from the
EoceneThe Eocene epoch, lasting from 55.8 ± 0.2 to 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch. The start of the...
of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
.
If
Palaeotis is, as Houde and Haubold suggested a basal or even ancestral ostich, it would be the only
ratiteA ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum - hence their name, which comes from the Latin for raft...
known from the Northern hemisphere, and this has important implications for the evolution of ratites. See
PaleognathaeThe Palaeognathae or paleognaths are one of the two living superorders of birds. The other living superorder is Neognathae. Together these two clades form the subclass Neornithes....
.