Zhylgaia
Zhylgaia is a genus of birds known only from fossils. Its remains have been recovered from a Late Cretaceous or Paleogene deposit in Central Asia.
| Zhylgaia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Genus: | †Zhylgaia Nesov, 1988 |
| Species: | †Z. aestiflua |
| Binomial name | |
| †Zhylgaia aestiflua Nesov, 1988 | |
The relationships of this genus are unknown; it was initially placed in the Presbyornithidae, which at that time were believed to be some sort of "transitional shorebird". Upon recognition that the presbyornithids were more likely a prehistoric lineage of fairly advanced waterfowl, Zhylgaia was assigned to the form taxon "Graculavidae", an assemblage of Late Cretaceous and Paleocene shorebirds which are not a natural clade but merely an assemblage of superficially similar birds. All that can be said about this taxon is that it was a modern bird, most likely a neognath.
References
- Nesov, L. A. (1988): [New Birds from the Cretaceous and Paleogene of Central Asia and Kazakhstan and Natural Conditions in Their Habitats]. Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta Akademii Nauk SSSR 182: 116–123. [Article in Russian]
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