| Zhylgaia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
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Fossil
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Subclass: | Neornithes |
| Infraclass: | Neognathae |
| Genus: | Zhylgaia Nesov, 1988 |
| Binomial name | |
| Zhylgaia aestiflua Nesov, 1988 |
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Zhylgaia is a genus of birds known only from fossils. Its remains have been recovered from a Late Cretaceous or Paleogene deposit in Central Asia.
The relationships of this form are unknown; it was initially placed in the Presbyornithidae, which at that time were believed to be some sort of "transitional shorebird". Recognizing that the presbyornithids were actually a prehistoric lineage of fairly advanced waterfowl, Zhylgaia was assigned to the form taxon "Graculavidae", an assemblage of Late Cretaceous and Paleocene shorebirds which are not a natural clade but merely an assemblage of outwardly similar birds. All that can be said about this taxon is that it was a modern bird, in all probability a neognathe.