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Rheiformes
Rheiformes is an order that contains the family Rheidae (rheas). It is in the infraclass Paleognathae, which contains all ratites. Extant members are found in South America. While the IOC World Bird List and the Clements Checklist categorise Rheiformes as its own order, the BirdLife Data Zone includes rheas, along with ostriches, tinamous, cassowaries, emu, and kiwis, in the order Struthioniformes. Of the two extant species of rheas recognized by the IUCN Red List, , '' Rhea americana'' is listed as near threatened, while '' Rhea pennata'' is listed as least concern. From 2014 to 2022, the IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ... recognised ''Rhea tarapacensis'' as a separate species, and listed it as near threatened in its last assessment in 2020; in 2022, it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleognathae
Palaeognathae (; ) is an infraclass of birds, called paleognaths or palaeognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. It is one of the two extant infraclasses of birds, the other being Neognathae, both of which form Neornithes. Palaeognathae contains five extant orders consisting of four flightless lineages (plus two that are extinct), termed ratites, and one flying lineage, the Neotropic tinamous. There are 47 species of tinamous, five of kiwis (''Apteryx''), three of cassowaries (''Casuarius''), one of emus (''Dromaius'') (another became extinct in historic times), two of rheas (''Rhea'') and two of ostriches ('' Struthio'').Clements, J. C. ''et al''. (2010) Recent research has indicated that paleognaths are monophyletic but the traditional taxonomic split between flightless and flighted forms is incorrect; tinamous are within the ratite radiation, meaning flightlessness arose independently multiple times via parallel evolution. There are three extinct groups t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhea Americana
The greater rhea (''Rhea americana'') is a species of flightless bird native to eastern South America. Other names for the greater rhea include the grey, common, or American rhea; ema ( Portuguese); or ñandú ( Guaraní and Spanish). One of two species in the genus '' Rhea'', in the family Rheidae, it inhabits a variety of open areas, such as grasslands, savanna or grassy wetlands. Weighing , the greater rhea is the largest native bird in the Americas. In the wild, the greater rhea has a life expectancy of 10.5 years. It is also notable for its reproductive habits, and for the fact that a population has established itself in Northern Germany in recent years. The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Taxonomy The greater rhea was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the ostriches in the genus '' Struthio'' and coined the binomial name ''Struthio americanus''. Linnaeus ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratite
Ratites () are a polyphyletic group consisting of all birds within the infraclass Palaeognathae that lack keels and cannot fly. They are mostly large, long-necked, and long-legged, the exception being the kiwi, which is also the only nocturnal extant ratite. The understanding of relationships within the paleognath clade has been in flux. Previously, all the flightless members had been assigned to the order Struthioniformes, which is more recently regarded as containing only the ostrich. The modern bird superorder Palaeognathae consists of ratites and the flighted Neotropic tinamous (compare to Neognathae). Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum—hence the name, from the Latin ('raft', a vessel which has no keel—in contradistinction to extant flighted birds with a keel). Without this to anchor their wing muscles, they could not have flown even if they had developed suitable wings. Ratites are a polyphyletic group; tinamous fall within the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rheidae
Rheidae is a family of flightless ratite birds which first appeared in the Paleocene. It is today represented by the sole living genus '' Rhea'', but also contains several extinct genera. Taxonomy Order Rheiformes (Forbes, 1884) Furbringer, 1888 heimorphae Bonaparte, 1849; Rheae Forbes 1884ref name="mikko"> * Family † Opisthodactylidae Ameghino 1895 ** Genus ?†'' Diogenornis'' de Alvarenga 1983 (Late Paleocene) – possibly a member of Casuariiformes The Casuariiformes is an order of large flightless birds that has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary, and the only remaining species of emu. They are divided into either a single family, Casuariidae, or occasionally two, wit ... instead. ** Genus †'' Opisthodactylus'' Ameghino 1895 (Miocene) – rheid? * Family Rheidae (Bonaparte 1849) Bonaparte, 1853 ** Genus †'' Heterorhea'' Rovereto 1914 (Pliocene) ** Genus †'' Hinasuri'' Tambussi 1995 ** Genus '' Rhea'' Brisson 1760 References {{Author ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Alexander Forbes
William Alexander Forbes (25 June 1855 – 14 January 1883) was an English zoologist. He was the son of James Staats Forbes (1823–1904). Forbes studied natural sciences at St John's College, Cambridge, and later taught at Rhodes College (then known as Stewart College). In 1879 he was appointed prosector to the Zoological Society of London on the death of the previous incumbent, Alfred Henry Garrod, who was Forbes's friend and whose literary executor Forbes became. Forbes lectured on comparative anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School. As an anatomist, he wrote valuable papers on the muscular structure and voice organs of birds. On 8 February 1878, Forbes was elected Secretary of the Cambridge Natural History Society. He also edited the book compiling the late Alfred Henry Garrod's scientific papers; the book was published in 1881 along with a memoir of Garrod written by Forbes. In 1880 Forbes visited the forests of Pernambuco, Brazil, and published an account of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene Taxonomic Orders
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''Ice Age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek () 'most' and (; Latinized as ) 'new'. The aridification and cooling trends of the preceding Neogene were continued in the Pleistocene. The climate was strongly variable depending on the glacial cycle, oscillating between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacials, with the sea levels being up to lower than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene Taxonomic Orders
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago (Ma). It is the second and most recent epoch of the Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Epoch and is followed by the Epoch. Prior to the 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene Taxonomic Orders
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and allowing the interchange of fauna between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans and hominoids into Eurasia. During the late Miocene, the connections between the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene Taxonomic Orders
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from Ancient Greek (''olígos'') 'few' and (''kainós'') 'new', and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion of gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene Taxonomic Orders
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', 'Dawn') and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.See: *Letter from William Whewell to Charles Lyell dated 31 January 1831 in: * From p. 55: "The period next antecedent we shall call Eocene, from ήως, aurora, and χαινος, recens, because the extremely small proportion of living species contained in these strata, indicates what may be considered the first commencement, or ''dawn'', of the existing state of the animate creation." The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleocene Taxonomic Orders
The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palaiós'' meaning "old" and the Eocene Epoch (which succeeds the Paleocene), translating to "the old part of the Eocene". The epoch is bracketed by two major events in Earth's history. The K–Pg extinction event, brought on by an asteroid impact (Chicxulub impact) and possibly volcanism (Deccan Traps), marked the beginning of the Paleocene and killed off 75% of species, most famously the non-avian dinosaurs. The end of the epoch was marked by the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which was a major climatic event wherein about 2,500–4,500 gigatons of carbon were released into the atmosphere and ocean systems, causing a spike in global temperatures and ocean acidification. In the Paleocene, the continents of the Northern Hemisphere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
