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''Palaeotis'' is a genus of paleognath birds from the middle Eocene epoch of central Europe. One species is known, ''Palaeotis weigelti''. The holotype specimen is a fossil 
In the 1930s a nearly complete fossil with catalog number GM 4362 was assigned to ''Palaeotis'', probably by Lambrecht. Houde and Haubold found three additional specimens in the collection of the Geiseltalmuseum, Martin-Luther University, Halle/S., Germany. One of those three is the holotype specimen of ''Paleogrus geiseltalensis'' (=Ornithocnemus geiseltalensis, Lambrecht 1935). Houde and Haubold also requested permission to prepare a fossil cataloged as HLMD Me 7530 at the Hesseches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany. HLMD Me 7530 was collected from the famous Messel shales. When it was prepared, the two ornithologists assigned it to Palaeotis as well.
Other scientists are less convinced that Palaeotis is a struthioniform, placing it instead as a more basal
tarsometatarsus
The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...
and phalanx. Lambrect (1928) described it as an extinct bustard (genus ''Otis''), and gave it its consequent name (''Palaeotis'' means ''ancient bustard'').Lambrecht, K. (1928) ''Palaeotis weigelti n. g. sp., eine fossil trappe aus der mitteleozanen Braunkohle des Geiseltales. Jahrbuch hallesch. Verband., Halle, n.s., 7:11. After a suggestion by Storrs L. Olson, a review of the type specimen and the referral of several other fossils by Houde and Haubold (1987) concluded that ''Palaeotis'' is a palaeognath and assigned it to the same order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
as ostriches; the Struthioniformes.Houde, Peter. Haubold, Hartmut. (1987) Palaeovertebrata, 17 (2): 27 - 46, 6 figures. 20 June 1987. In 2021, it was considered a member of the family Paleotididae alongside '' Galligeranoides'' from the Early Eocene of France, which were found to be basal members of the Struthioniformes.
In the 1930s a nearly complete fossil with catalog number GM 4362 was assigned to ''Palaeotis'', probably by Lambrecht. Houde and Haubold found three additional specimens in the collection of the Geiseltalmuseum, Martin-Luther University, Halle/S., Germany. One of those three is the holotype specimen of ''Paleogrus geiseltalensis'' (=Ornithocnemus geiseltalensis, Lambrecht 1935). Houde and Haubold also requested permission to prepare a fossil cataloged as HLMD Me 7530 at the Hesseches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany. HLMD Me 7530 was collected from the famous Messel shales. When it was prepared, the two ornithologists assigned it to Palaeotis as well.
Other scientists are less convinced that Palaeotis is a struthioniform, placing it instead as a more basal ratite
A ratite () is any of a diverse group of flightless, large, long-necked, and long-legged birds of the infraclass Palaeognathae. Kiwi, the exception, are much smaller and shorter-legged and are the only nocturnal extant ratites.
The systematics ...
. It may be related to the mysterious '' Remiornis'', a putative ratite known from the Eocene of France. Various other ratite remains also occur in the European Paleogene and early Miocene, and these may represent various independent linages, leading to further confusion.
Biology
''Palaeotis'' is suggested to be sexually dimorphic, as some specimens being consistently smaller than others. While the forelimb is incomplete, the spindley humerus indicates that it had relatively large wings unlike modern ostriches and rheas. The beak was slender, more similar to that of lithornithids, and probably had similar carnivorous habits. ''Paleotis'' is considered to be flightless.References
Eocene birds of Europe Struthioniformes {{paleo-bird-stub