Struthionidae

Abstract: The Pliocene locality of Ahl al Oughlam is situated at the southeastern limit of the city of Casablanca, in Morocco, on an ancient seashore of the Atlantic Ocean. It has yielded a very rich vertebrate fauna (macro- and micromammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes) including both terrestrial and marine forms. On the basis of biostratigraphy, the fauna has been dated at about 2.5 Ma, which corresponds to the latest Pliocene. The avifauna is very diverse and includes birds belonging to twelve different orders. In this paper we describe only the Struthionidae and the Pelagornithidae. Ostriches are represented by a large-sized form, referred to the extinct species Struthio asiaticus Milne-Edwards, and its eggshells, of struthioid type, are comparable to those of the recent species Struthio camelus, but thicker. The Pelagornithidae, giant marine birds with bony pseudoteeth, are represented by an extinct species of the genus Pelagornis. As far as we know, this species was probably the latest representative of the order Odontopterygiformes.

Abstract: We report fossil ratite eggshells from the site, Dhar-amsala of Dhok Pathan Formation (Middle Siwaliks), dated to 10.1 Ma. A comparative analysis reveals that in their combination of eggshell surface, pore, pore canal morphology and cross-sectional features, the Indian eggshells show closest affinity with the widely distributed Neogene fossil taxon Struthiolithus, and as such are assigned to cf. Struthiolithus. We have carried out a parsimony analysis of all relevant extinct and extant palaeognathous birds of the southern continents, as ingroup taxa. Genyornis, an extinct bird from Australia, and Gallus gallus (chicken) were also used in this analysis as ingroup (Neornithes) taxa. The result supports monophyly of Palaeognathae. The present cf. Struthiolithus eggshell and Aepyornis were found to be sister taxa and their forbearers had a common ancestry with Afro-Arabian Struthio and Diamantornis. The Indian subcontinent now has an extended fossil record of struthionid eggshells from the Late Miocene to the Late Pleistocene, implying dispersals through intercontinental migration corridors. Our stable carbon isotope (δ 3 C PDB ) value of ―10.4‰ of the present eggshells suggests that the ratite bird had a diet mainly of C 3 plants.

Abstract: Fossil hind limb bones of a didactyl ratite found at Elisabethfeld, a Lower Miocene site in Namibia, represent the oldest known skeletal elements of the genus Struthio. The same site has yielded egg-shells of aepyornithoid pattern. This discovery indicates that didactyl ostriches probably originated in Africa in pre-Miocene times. They subsequently spread to Eurasia during the Middle Miocene and later periods.

Abstract: A species of ostrich is identified among the vertebrate faunal assemblage from the Pliocene locality of Calta, Turkey. This taxon referred to as Struthio sp. is of a more robust type than the recent species Struthio camelus as based on the dimensions of the posterior limb bones, and particularly the femur. This species represents one of the struthioniformes that evolved in Eurasia and is close in its morphological features to Struthio asiaticus Brodkorb, 1963.