Rhynchaeites
Appearance
Rhynchaeites Temporal range: Middle Eocene
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Rhynchaeites species fossil | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Pelecaniformes |
Family: | Threskiornithidae |
Genus: | †Rhynchaeites Wittich, 1898 |
Species: | †R. messelensis
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Binomial name | |
†Rhynchaeites messelensis Wittich, 1898
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Rhynchaeites is an extinct genus of Threskiornithidae related to modern ibises and has a single named species Rhynchaeites meselensis. It lived in today's Germany during the mid-Eocene and its remains were found in the famous Messel pit.
However, leg bone fossils of a similar bird were found in the Early Eocene Fur Formation in Denmark. It has been hypothesized that the supposed parrot relative Mopsitta tanta, known from a single humerus bone, is the same bird as the leg fossils and thus actually belongs in Rhynchaeites too.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Rhynchaeites_messelensis.jpg/220px-Rhynchaeites_messelensis.jpg)
References
[edit]- "The Origin and Evolution of Birds" by Alan Feduccia