Palaelodus
Name:
Palaelodus.
Phonetic: Pal-ay-o-dus.
Named By: Milne-Edwards - 1863.
Synonyms: Probalearica, Paloelodus,
Palaeolodus.
Classification: Chordata, Aves,
Phoenicopteriformes, Palaelodidae.
Species: P. ambiguus
(type), P. aotearoa, P. crassipes?, P.
germanicus, P. gracilipes?, P. pledgei, P. wilsoni.
Diet: Filter feeder of aquatic animals.
Size: Up to 150 centimetres high.
Known locations: Australia?. Czech Republic.
Egypt - Jebel Qatrani Formation. New Zealand.
Time period: Rupelian of the Oligocene through to
the Burdigalian of the Miocene.
Fossil representation: Many individuals.
Palaelodus
is the type genus of the Palaelodidae, a sister group to the
birds that we today know as flamingos. Though perceived to be
flamingo-like, Palaelodus is also noted as being
primitive in form to
the point that it may have actually swum through the water instead of
only wading through it. The beak of Palaelodus is
also noted as being
not as well formed for filtering out small animals from the water as
what modern flamingos have. Although Palaelodus
is not a direct
relative to modern flamingos, the genus still gives us a valuable
insight into how flamingos evolved, possibly from grebes.
There
have been many species assigned to the Palaelodus
species, though
some such as P. crassipes and P.
gracilipes have been questioned.
Two species named from Australia, P. pledgei
and P. wilsoni,
have also had there validity questioned given that they have been
named from so far away from other known Palaelodus
species, with the
addition that P. wilsoni meaning the genus
would have lived many
millions of years after all the other known species went extinct. An
additional species of the genus Megapaloelodus,
M. goliath, is
also often considered to be more similar to Palaelodus
than to
Megapaloelodus, though birds of this species are
significantly larger
than other Palaelodus species.
Further reading
- Palaelodus (Aves: Palaelodidae) from the
Middle to Late
Cainozoic of Australia. - Alcheringa 22: 135–151. - R.
F. baird & P. Vickers-Rich - 1998.
- Morphological evidence for sister group relationship between
flamingos (Aves: Phoenicopteridae) and grebes
(Podicipedidae). - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
140 (2): 157–169. - Gerald Mayr - 2004.
- First Record of Palaelodus (Aves:
Phoenicopteriformes) from
New Zealand. - Records of the Australian Museum Vol. 62:
77–88. - Trevor H. Worthy, Alan J. D. Tennyson,
Michael Archer & R. Paul Scofield - 2010.
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