''Pachystruthio'' is a genus of

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 ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

which lived in

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

from the Late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. Its fossils have been found in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, Greece

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, and China. The genus contains three species: ''P. pannonicus'' (the type species), ''P. dmanisensis'', and ''P. transcaucasicus'', which were all formerly placed with the

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

genus, ''

Struthio Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

''. An incomplete femur from the Nihewan Formation (China) has been assigned to ''Pachystruthio'' indet. ''P. dmanisensis'' has been estimated standing 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) tall and weighing up to 450 kg (990 lb), making it much larger than the modern ostrich and one of the largest known birds. Although ''P. dmanisensis'' is known as the giant ostrich, its relationship to the extant ostriches of the genus ''Struthio'' is not clear. Some authors have suggested placing the large (albeit smaller than ''P. dmanisensis'') extinct ostrich species '' Struthio anderssoni'' from the Late Pleistocene of China in the genus.

References

* * * Birds described in 1954 Extinct flightless birds Fossil taxa described in 1954 Neogene birds of Asia Pleistocene birds Pleistocene species extinctions Pliocene birds Prehistoric birds of Europe Quaternary birds of Asia Struthionidae {{paleo-bird-stub

See also

References