The Asian or Asiatic ostrich (''Struthio asiaticus''), is an extinct species of
ostrich
Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...
that lived during the
Neogene period on the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. The early records that ranged from the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...](_blank)
to
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
-
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
epoch in
northeastern Asia
Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical subregion of Asia; its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the Pacific Ocean.
The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by American historian and political scienti ...
are considered dubious.
[Buffetaut, E. Feduccia (2022)] Beads made from shells taken from archaeological sites in India dating to more than 25,000 years were found to have traces of DNA and analysis of sequences examined from them show that the species is definitely in the genus ''Struthio''.
Description
Asian ostriches were large, being more robustly built and reaching about the same height as the extant male ostrich. It may have had short toes, but this is considered a tentative assumption.
[ A specimen from the Pliocene of Morocco could be 20% bigger than adult male of the extant '']Struthio camelus
The common ostrich (''Struthio camelus''), or simply ostrich, is a species of flightless bird native to certain large areas of Africa and is the largest living bird species. It is one of two extant species of ostriches, the only living members o ...
'',[Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile, et al (2008)] but the African specimens are considered dubious, and the "exact proportions are difficult to reconstruct on the basis of the available material."[
]
References
Works cited
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Additional reading
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*Routledge, Jennifer (2020). "Ostrich Eggshell from the Far Eastern Steppe: Stable Isotopic Exploration of Range, Commodification, and Extirpation". ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2020
Ostriches
Extinct flightless birds
Ratites
Struthio
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
Neogene birds of Asia
Pleistocene birds
Zanclean first appearances
Holocene extinctions
Extinct birds of Asia
Quaternary birds of Asia
Fossil taxa described in 1871
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