Palaelodus

Taxobox
name = "Palaelodus"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Middle Oligocene to Middle Pleistocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Phoenicopteriformes
familia = Palaelodidae
genus = "Palaelodus"
genus_authority = A. Milne-Edwards, 1863
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "Palaelodus ambiguus" (type) "Palaelodus gracilipes" (disputed) "Palaelodus crassipes" (disputed) "Palaelodus germanicus" (disputed) "Palaelodus pledgei" "Palaelodus wilsoni" (disputed)
synonyms ="Probalearica" Lambrecht, 1933 "Paloelodus" ("lapsus") "Palaeolodus" ("lapsus")

"Palaelodus" is an extinct genus of birds distantly related to flamingosFact|date=August 2008. They were slender birds with long, thin legs and a long neck. Little is known about the shape of their skull or beak. Some paleontologists thinkFact|date=August 2008 "Palaelodus" was able to swim under water, chasing prey, but the morphology of their feet seems not very well adapted for diving. Rather, it is more likelyFact|date=August 2008 that they were adapted to browsing for food while swimming or standing in shallow water.

The family, Palaelodidae, is the sister taxon of modern flamingos, and the order Phoenicopteriformes, to which both belong, probably evolved from a grebe-like ancestor. It is easy to see how a bird like "Palaelodus" represents an intermediate form between a diving, fish-eating grebe and a wading, invertebrate-filtering flamingoFact|date=August 2008. This does not mean that the palaelodids are the ancestors of the flamingos. Rather, they were a sister group that remained in the ecological niche of their common ancestor.Fact|date=August 2008

The number of species in the genus is disputedFact|date=August 2008. The species "P. ambiguus" was found in Middle Oligocene to Middle Miocene (c. 29-12 mya) deposits of Western and Central Europe, being rare in Oligocene and much more common in Miocene strata (Hugueney "et al.", 2003). The Romanian fossil "Grus miocaenicus" is sometimes considered a synonym of this species. Other, somewhat doubtful species described from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene (c. 28-23 mya) of French inland sites are "P. gracilipes" and "P. crassipes" which are most common in the Late Oligocene and later are replaced by "P. ambiguus" (Hugueney "et al.", 2003). From Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene (c. 28-12 mya) sites in Australia, the species "P. pledgei" was described. "P. wilsoni" was found in Middle Pleistocene deposits (roughly half a million years ago) in Australia; given the large temporal gap, it might not belong into this genus. On the other hand, the supposed crane "Pliogrus germanicus" most likely belongs into this genusFact|date=August 2008. Sometimes, "Megapalaolodus goliath" is included in "Palaelodus" too.

References

* Hugueney, Marguerite; Berthet, Didier; Bodergat, Anne-Marie; Escuillié, François; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile & Wattinne, Aurélia (2003): La limite Oligocène-Miocène en Limagne-changements fauniques chez les mammifères, oiseaux et ostracodes des différents niveaux de Billy-Créchy (Allier, France). "Geobios" 36: 719-731 [Article in French with English abstract] DOI|10.1016/j.geobios.2003.01.002 (HTML abstract)

* Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1863): Mémoire sur la distribution géologique des oiseaux fossiles et description de quelques espèces nouvelles. "Annales des Sciences Naturelles" 4(20): 132-176.