''Orientornis'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ...

from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Description

Remains of a pelvis, including a synsacrum, were recovered from

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

in the Linxia Basin, Guanghe County,

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, northwest

. Based on the size of these remains, it is believed to have been slightly larger than '' Struthio camelus''. When this bird lived, the area is believed to have been either open grasslands or wetlands.

Taxonomy

''Orientornis'' was originally named as a species of ''Struthio'', ''S. linxiaensis'', by Hou et al. (2005). However, Wang (2008) placed the taxon in its own genus, ''Orientornis''.Wang S. 2008. Rediscussion in the taxonomic assignment of ''Struthio linxiaensis'' Hou, et al., 2005. ''Acta Paleotologica Sinica'' 47:362–368.

Footnotes

References

* Miocene birds Extinct flightless birds Struthioniformes Neogene birds of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2008 {{paleo-bird-stub