Palaelodidae is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of extinct birds in the group
Phoenicopteriformes
Phoenicopteriformes is a group of water birds which comprises flamingos and their extinct relatives. Flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) and the closely related grebes ( Podicipedidae) are contained in the parent clade Mirandornithes.
Fossil rec ...
, which today is represented only by the
flamingos
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean) ...
. They have been described as "swimming flamingos."
They can be considered evolutionarily, and ecologically, intermediate between flamingos and
grebe
Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...
s.
Three genera are recognised:
* †''
Adelalopus''
(Mayr & Smith 2002), called the "stout-legged flamingos" (Borgloon Early Oligocene of Hoogbutsel, Belgium)
** †''
Adelalopus hoogbutseliensis''
(Mayr and Smith 2002)
* †''
Palaelodus
''Palaelodus'' is an extinct genus of bird of the Palaelodidae family, distantly related to flamingos. They were slender birds with long, thin legs and a long neck resembling their modern relatives, but likely lived very different livestyles. Th ...
''
(Milne-Edwards 1863) 'Pliogrus''_
(Lambrecht_1933).html" ;"title="Pliogrus.html" ;"title="'
'Pliogrus''_
(Lambrecht_1933)">Pliogrus.html"_;"title="'Pliogrus">'Pliogrus''_
(Lambrecht_1933)(Middle_Oligocene_–?_Middle_Pleistocene)
**_†''Palaelodus_ambiguus.html" ;"title="Pliogrus">'Pliogrus''
(Lambrecht 1933)">Pliogrus.html" ;"title="'Pliogrus">'Pliogrus''
(Lambrecht 1933)(Middle Oligocene –? Middle Pleistocene)
** †''Palaelodus ambiguus">P. ambiguus''
(Milne-Edwards 1863) [''Grus problematica''
(Milne-Edwards 1871); ''Probalearica problematica''
(Milne-Edwards 1871); ''Palaelodus gracilipes''
(Milne-Edwards 1863); ''Palaelodus crassipes''
(Milne-Edwards 1863); ''Paloelodus minutus''
(sic) (Milne-Edwards 1868); ''Grus miocenicus''
(Grigorescu and Kessler 1977)]
** †''
Palaelodus aotearoa, P. aotearoa''
(Worthy et al. 2010)
** †''
P. germanicus''
(Lambrecht 1933) 'Pliogrus germanicus'' (Lambrecht 1933)** †''
P. kurochkini''
(Zelenkov 2013)
** †''
P. pledgei''
(Baird and Vickers-Rich 1998)
** †''
P. wilsoni''
(Baird and Vickers-Rich 1998)
* †''
Megapaloelodus
''Megapaloelodus'' is an extinct genus of stem flamingo of the family Palaelodidae. ''Megapaloelodus'' is primarily known from Miocene America, from South Dakota and Oregon in the north to Argentina in the south, but the species ''Megapaloelodus ...
''
(Miller 1944) (Late Oligocene–Early Pliocene)
** †''
M. conectens''
(Miller 1944)
** †''
M. peiranoi''
(Agnolin 2009)
** †''
M. goliath''
(Milne-Edwards 1863) (Cheneval 1983c) 'Paloelodus goliath'' (sic) (Milne-Edwards 1868)** †''
M. opsigonus''
(Brodkorb 1961)
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Prehistoric bird families
Rupelian first appearances
Pleistocene extinctions
{{paleo-bird-stub