''Ludiortyx'' is a bird

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

from the Late

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'', " ...

. Its remains have been found in the Montmartre Formation at the

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

(

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

). A single species is accepted, ''Ludiortyx hoffmanni''. This bird is of uncertain relationships; it has been variously considered to be an ancestral

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

or to belong to the Quercymegapodiidae, a prehistoric group of

Galliformes 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 ofte ...

(landfowl). The material assigned to it were initially considered to be of 2 species, one that was at first believed to be a ''

Tringa ''Tringa'' is a genus of waders, containing the shanks and tattlers. The genus name ''Tringa'' is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599. They are mainly freshwater birds, often with ...

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

, the other assigned to the galliform genus ''

Palaeortyx ''Palaeortyx'' is an extinct genus of granivorous galliform bird that lived 28.4 to 2.588 million years ago.Mayr, G. ''et al.'' (2006"A nearly complete skeleton of the fossil galliform bird ''Palaeortyx'' from the late Oligocene of Germany" ''Act ...

''.Mlíkovský (2002) Even the latter assignment was probably much in error as though its relationships are not known, ''Palaeortyx'' was probably not a quercymegapodiid.

Synonyms

Apart from the genus-level synonym ''Eortyx'', ''L. hoffmanni'' has undergone quite a number of name changes due to the confusion about its placement: * ''Tringa hoffmanni'' Gervais, 1852 * ''Palaeortyx hoffmanni'' (Gervais, 1852) * ''Palaeortyx blanchardi'' Milne-Edwards, 1869 * ''Ludiortyx blanchardi'' (Milne-Edwards, 1869) * ''Eortyx hoffmanni'' (Gervais, 1852)

Footnotes

References

* (2002): ''Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe''. Ninox Press, Prague. PDF fulltext
!-- This should be treated with extreme caution as regards merging of species. Splits are usually good though. See also critical review in Auk121:623-627 here http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200404/ai_n9396879 --> Bird genera Eocene birds Gruiformes Quercymegapodiidae Fossils of France Fossil taxa described in 1964 {{paleo-bird-stub