Palaeophasianus

Palaeophasianus is an extinct genus of flightless Geranoididae birds that lived in North America during the Eocene period. Robert Wilson Shufeldt classified Palaeophasianus as a galliform when he described it in 1913.[1] However it was transferred to Cracidae in 1964 by Pierce Brodkorb,[2] while Joel Cracraft in 1968 placed it in Gruiformes.[3][4]

Palaeophasianus
Temporal range: early Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: †Geranoididae
Genus: †Palaeophasianus
Shufeldt, 1913
Species:
†P. meleagroides
Binomial name
†Palaeophasianus meleagroides
Shufeldt, 1913
Synonyms
  • ?Geranoides

The only species in this genus is P. meleagroides,[5][6] and it is described as a "ground-dwelling carnivore".[6] The fossil remains were found by the American Museum expedition of 1910 in Big Horn County, Wyoming, in the Willwood formation (early Eocene).[7]

References
  1. Shufeldt, R.W. (1913). "Further studies of fossil birds with descriptions of new and extinct species". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 32: 285–306. hdl:2246/1412.
  2. Brodkorb, P. (1964). "Catalogue of fossil birds Part 2 (Anseriformes through Galliformes)". Bulletin of the Florida State Museum. 8: 195–335.
  3. Cracraft, Joel (August 1969). "Systematics and Evolution of the Gruiformes (Class, Aves)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (2388). hdl:2246/2598.
  4. Cracraft, Joel (1968). "Reallocation of the Eocene Fossil Palaeophasianus meleagroides Shufeldt". The Wilson Bulletin. 80 (3): 281–285. ISSN 0043-5643. JSTOR 4159740.
  5. Palaeophasianus at fossilworks.org (retrieved 2019-11-06)
  6. Palaeophasianus meleagroides at fossilworks.org (retrieved 2019-11-06)
  7. "Fossilworks: East of Dry Camp 2 (AMNH)". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
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