Rhynchaeites
| Rhynchaeites Temporal range: Middle Eocene
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Rhynchaeites species fossil | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Pelecaniformes |
| Family: | Threskiornithidae |
| Genus: | †Rhynchaeites Wittich, 1898 |
| Species: | †R. messelensis
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Rhynchaeites messelensis Wittich, 1898
| |
Rhynchaeites is an extinct genus of Threskiornithidae related to modern ibises and has a single named species Rhynchaeites meselensis. It lived in today's Germany during the mid-Eocene and its remains were found in the famous Messel pit.
However, leg bone fossils of a similar bird were found in the
Mopsitta tanta, known from a single humerus
bone, is the same bird as the leg fossils and thus actually belongs in Rhynchaeites too.
References
- "The Origin and Evolution of Birds" by Alan Feduccia