''Palaeophasianus'' is an extinct genus of flightless
Geranoididae
Geranoididae is a clade of extinct birds from the early to late Eocene and possibly early Oligocene of North America and Europe. These were mid-sized, long-legged flightless birds.Gerald Mayr (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds Recent research shows ...
birds that lived in North America during the
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
period.
Robert Wilson Shufeldt
Robert Wilson Shufeldt Jr. (December 1, 1850January 21, 1934) was an American osteologist, myologist, museologist and ethnographer who contributed to comparative studies of bird anatomy and forensic science. He held strong views on race and w ...
classified ''Palaeophasianus'' as a
galliform
Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...
when he described it in 1913. However it was transferred to
Cracidae
The chachalacas, guans and curassows are birds in the family Cracidae. These are species of tropical and subtropical Central and South America. The range of one species, the plain chachalaca, just reaches southernmost parts of Texas in the Unite ...
in 1964 by
Pierce Brodkorb
William Pierce Brodkorb (September 29, 1908, Chicago – July 18, 1992, Gainesville, Florida) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist.
Interested in birds since childhood, he was taught to prepare birds at the age of 16. Later, he rec ...
, while
Joel Cracraft
Joel Lester Cracraft (born July 31, 1942), is an American paleontologist and ornithologist. He received a PhD in 1969 from Columbia University (''Functional Morphology of Locomotion in Birds'').
His research interests include: theory and method ...
in 1968 placed it in
Gruiformes
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that did ...
.
The only species in this genus is ''P. meleagroides'', and it is described as a "ground-dwelling carnivore". The fossil remains were found by the American Museum expedition of 1910 in Big Horn County, Wyoming, in the