Pseudocrypturus

Pseudocrypturus
Temporal range: Early Paleocene - Middle Eocene
Cast at Aathal Dinosaur Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Subclass: Carinatae
Infraclass: Neornithes
Superorder: Paleognathae
Order: Lithornithiformes
Family: Lithornithidae
Genus: Pseudocrypturus
(Houde, 1988)[1]
Species

Pseudocrypturus cercanaxius

Pseudocrypturus is a genus of extinct paleognathous bird. One species is known, Pseudocrypturus cercanaxius. It is a relative of such modern birds as ostriches. It lived in the early Eocene.

Cast of the same fossil, Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen

The holotype fossil is in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. It has catalog number USNM 336103. It was collected from the Fossil Butte Member, Green River Formation, Lincoln County, Wyoming, USA.[2]

Etymology

Pseudocrypturus means false tinamou. The species name cercanaxius comes from ancient Greek words kerkion, tail, and anaxios, worthless, in reference to the rudientary pygostyle of this species.

Footnotes

  1. Hinton, A. C. (1996)
  2. Houde, Peter W. (1988)

References