Pseudocrypturus is a genus of extinct paleognathous bird. Three species are known and the type species is Pseudocrypturus cercanaxius. It is a relative of such modern birds as ostriches. It lived in the early Eocene. 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.[4]
Taxonomy
Pseudocrypturus means false tinamou. The type species name, cercanaxius, comes from ancient Greek words kerkion, tail, and anaxios, worthless, in reference to the rudimentary pygostyle of the species.[citation needed]
Footnotes
- ^ Pseudocrypturus in the Paleobiology Database
- ^ Hinton, A. C. (1996)
- ^ a b Mayr, G.; Kitchener, A. C. (2025). “The Lithornithiformes (Aves) from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK)”. Papers in Palaeontology. 11 (1). e1611. doi:10.1002/spp2.1611.
- ^ Houde, Peter W. (1988)
References
- Hinton, A. C.; Lang, W. D.; et al. (1996). Edwards, Marcia A. (ed.). Nomenclator Zoologicus. Vol. 9. Regents Park, London: Zoological Society of London. p. 479.
- Houde, Peter W. (1988). “Paleognathous Birds from the Early Tertiary of the Northern Hemisphere”. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. 22. Cambridge MA: Nuttall Ornithological Club.
