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Taxonomic history

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Evolution

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Distribution and habitat
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Species

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Citations

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General references

Ostrich
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the animal. For other uses, see Ostrich (disambiguation).

Ostrich

Temporal range: Miocene–

Holocene, 23–0 Ma 

PreꞒ

Ꞓ
 O

Pg

Montage of two living species, from left

to right: common ostrich and Somali

ostrich

Scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Infraclass: Palaeognathae
Order: Struthioniformes

Family: Struthionidae

Genus: Struthio
Linnaeus, 1758[1]

Type species

Struthio camelus

Linnaeus, 1758

Species

 †S. anderssoni East Asian

ostrich

 ?†S. barbarus
 ?†S. chersonensis Short-toed
ostrich

 ?†S. kakesiensis
 ?†S. karingarabensis
 †S. asiaticus Asian ostrich
 †S. brachydactylus
 †S. coppensi
 †S. oldawayi
 †S. orlovi
 †S. wimani
 S. molybdophanes Somali
ostrich

 S. camelus Common ostrich

Synonyms

 †Autruchon Temminick 1840
fide Gray, 1841 (nomen nudum)

 †Struthiolithus Brandt 1873
  †Megaloscelornis Lydekker
1879

 †Palaeostruthio Burchak-
Abramovich 1953

Ostriches are large flightless birds. They are the heaviest living birds, and lay the
largest eggs of any living land animal. With the ability to run at 70 km/h (43.5 mph), they
are the fastest birds on land. They are farmed worldwide, with significant industries in
the Philippines and in Namibia. Ostrich leather is a lucrative commodity, and the large
feathers are used as plumes for the decoration of ceremonial headgear. Ostrich
eggs have been used by humans for millennia.
Ostriches are of the genus Struthio in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-
class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that
includes the emus, rheas, cassowaries and kiwis. There are two living species of
ostrich: the common ostrich, native to large areas of sub-Saharan Africa, and
the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa.[2] The common ostrich used to be native
to the Arabian Peninsula, and ostriches were present across Asia as far east as China
and Mongolia during the Late Pleistocene and possibly into the Holocene.

Taxonomic history
The genus Struthio was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The genus was used
by Linnaeus and other early taxonomists to include the emu, rhea, and cassowary, until
they each were placed in their own genera. [1] The Somali ostrich (Struthio
molybdophanes) has recently become recognized as a separate species by most
authorities, while others are still reviewing the evidence. [3][4]

Evolution
Struthionidae is a member of the Struthioniformes, a group of paleognath birds which
first appeared during the Early Eocene, and includes a variety of flightless forms which
were present across the Northern Hemisphere (Europe, Asia and North America) during
the Eocene epoch. The closest relatives of Struthionidae within the Struthioniformes are
the Ergilornithidae, known from the late Eocene to early Pliocene of Asia. It is therefore
most likely that Struthionidae originated in Asia. [5]
The earliest fossils of the genus Struthio are from the early Miocene ~21 million years
ago of Namibia in Africa, so it is proposed that genus is of African origin. By the middle
to late Miocene (5–13 mya) they had spread to and become widespread across
Eurasia.[6] While the relationship of the African fossil species is comparatively
straightforward, many Asian species of ostrich have been described from fragmentary
remains, and their interrelationships and how they relate to the African ostriches are
confusing. In India, Mongolia and China, ostriches are known to have become extinct
only around, or even after, the end of the last ice age; images of ostriches have been
found prehistoric Chinese pottery and petroglyphs.[7][8][9][10]
 

Struthio camelus egg – MHNT

 

Size comparison (with a chicken egg and a US dollar bill)

 

Ostrich with eggs

Distribution and habitat

Today, ostriches are only found natively in the wild in Africa, where they occur in a
range of open arid and semi-arid habitats such as savannas and the Sahel, both north
and south of the equatorial forest zone.[11] The Somali ostrich occurs in the Horn of
Africa, having evolved isolated from the common ostrich by the geographic barrier of
the East African Rift. In some areas, the common ostrich's Masai subspecies occurs
alongside the Somali ostrich, but they are kept from interbreeding by behavioral and
ecological differences.[12] The Arabian ostriches in Asia Minor and Arabia were hunted to
extinction by the middle of the 20th century, and in Israel attempts to introduce North
African ostriches to fill their ecological role have failed.[13] Escaped common ostriches in
Australia have established feral populations.[14][15][16]

Species

A male Somali ostrich in a Kenyan savanna, showing its

blueish neck
In 2008, S. linxiaensis was transferred to the genus Orientornis.[17] Three additional
species, S. pannonicus, S. dmanisensis, and S. transcaucasicus, were transferred to
the genus Pachystruthio in 2019.[18] Several additional fossil forms are ichnotaxa (that is,
classified according to the organism's trace fossils such as footprints rather than its
body) and their association with those described from distinctive bones is contentious
and in need of revision pending more good material. [19]
The species are:

 Prehistoric
o †Struthio barbarus Arambourg 1979
o †Struthio brachydactylus Burchak-Abramovich 1939 (Pliocene of Ukraine)
o †Struthio chersonensis (Brandt 1873) Lambrecht 1921 (Pliocene of SE Europe to WC
Asia) – oospecies
o †Struthio coppensi Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1996 (Early Miocene of Elizabethfeld,
Namibia)
o †Struthio daberasensis Pickford, Senut & Dauphin 1995 (Early – Middle Pliocene of
Namibia) – oospecies
o †Struthio kakesiensis Harrison & Msuya 2005 (Early Pliocene of Laetoli, Tanzania) –
oospecies
o †Struthio karingarabensis Senut, Dauphin & Pickford 1998 (Late Miocene – Early
Pliocene of SW and CE Africa) – oospecies(?)
o †Struthio oldawayi Lowe 1933 (Late Pleistocene of Tanzania) – probably
subspecies of S. camelus[20]
o †Struthio orlovi Kuročkin & Lungo 1970 (Late Miocene of Moldavia)
o †Struthio wimani Lowe 1931 (Early Pliocene of China and Mongolia)
 Late Pleistocene – Holocene
o †Struthio anderssoni Lowe 1931, East Asian ostrich (Late Pleistocene of China to
Mongolia)[8][9][21] –
o †Struthio asiaticus Brodkorb 1863, Asian ostrich (Early Pliocene – Early Holocene of
Central Asia to China? and Morocco)
 o Struthio camelus, common ostrich
 Struthio camelus camelus, North African ostrich
 Struthio camelus massaicus, Masai ostrich
 Struthio camelus australis, South African ostrich
 †Struthio camelus syriacus, Arabian ostrich
o Struthio molybdophanes, Somali ostrich

Citations
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Gray, George Robert (1855).  Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds
contained in the British Museum. London, UK: Taylor and Francis. p.  109.
2. ^ "Seagull Publishers:: K-8 segment | Books | Practice manuals". Retrieved 2020-11-11.
3. ^ Gill, F.; Donsker, D (2012).  "Ratites".  IOC World Bird List. WorldBirdNames.org. Retrieved 13
Jun  2012.
4. ^ BirdLife International (2012).  "The BirdLife checklist of the birds of the world, with conservation
status and taxonomic sources". Archived from the original  (xls) on 25 December 2011. Retrieved 16
Jun  2012.
5. ^ Mayr, Gerald; Zelenkov, Nikita (2021-11-13).  "Extinct crane-like birds (Eogruidae and
Ergilornithidae) from the Cenozoic of Central Asia are indeed ostrich
precursors".  Ornithology.  138  (4): ukab048. doi:10.1093/ornithology/ukab048. ISSN 0004-8038.
6. ^ Mikhailov, Konstantin E.; Zelenkov, Nikita (September 2020).  "The late Cenozoic history of the
ostriches (Aves: Struthionidae), as revealed by fossil eggshell and bone remains".  Earth-Science
Reviews. 208:
103270. Bibcode:2020ESRv..20803270M. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103270.  S2CID 225275210.
7. ^ Doar, B.G. (2007) "Genitalia, Totems and Painted Pottery: New Ceramic Discoveries in Gansu and
Surrounding Areas" Archived 2020-09-23 at the Wayback Machine. China Heritage Quarterly
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Janz, Lisa; et  al. (2009). "Dating North Asian surface assemblages with ostrich
eggshell: Implications for palaeoecology and extirpation". Journal of Archaeological Science. 36 (9):
1982–1989.  doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.05.012.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Andersson, Johan Gunnar  (1923). On the occurrence of fossil remains of
Struthionidae in China. In: Essays on the cenozoic of northern China. Memoirs of the Geological
Survey of China (Peking), Series A, No. 3, pp. 53–77. Peking, China: Geological Survey of China.
10. ^ Jain, Sonal; Rai, Niraj; Kumar, Giriraj; Pruthi, Parul Aggarwal; Thangaraj, Kumarasamy; Bajpai,
Sunil; Pruthi, Vikas (2017-03-08). Calafell, Francesc (ed.). "Ancient DNA Reveals Late Pleistocene
Existence of Ostriches in Indian Sub-Continent".  PLOS ONE. 12 (3):
e0164823.  Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1264823J.  doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0164823. ISSN 1932-6203.  P
MC  5342186.  PMID  28273082.
11. ^ Donegan, Keenan (2002). "Struthio camelus". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology.
12. ^ Freitag, Stephanie & Robinson, Terence J. (1993).  "Phylogeographic patterns in mitochondrial DNA
of the Ostrich (Struthio camelus)"  (PDF).  The Auk. 110 (3): 614–
622.  doi:10.2307/4088425.  JSTOR  4088425.
13. ^ Rinat, Zafrir (25 December 2007). "The Bitter Fate of Ostriches in the Wild". Haaretz. Tel Aviv.
Retrieved 10 January  2017.
14. ^ Ostriches in Australia – and near my home Archived 2020-06-11 at the Wayback Machine.
trevorsbirding.com (13 September 2007)
15. ^ Rural, A. B. C. (2018-09-01). "The outback ostriches — Australia's loneliest birds".  ABC News.
Retrieved 2021-02-10.
16. ^ "Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus)".  iNaturalist Australia. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
17. ^ Wang, S. (2008). "Rediscussion in the taxonomic assignment of Struthio linxiaensis  Hou, et al.,
2005". Acta Paleotologica Sinica. 47: 362–368.
18. ^ Zelenkov, N. V.; Lavrov, A. V.; Startsev, D. B.; Vislobokova, I. A.; Lopatin, A. V. (2019). "A giant
early Pleistocene bird from eastern Europe: unexpected component of terrestrial faunas at the time of
 early Homo arrival".  Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.  39  (2):
e1605521.  doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1605521.  S2CID 198384367.
19. ^ Bibi, Faysal; Shabel, Alan B.; Kraatz, Brian P.; Stidham, Thomas A. (2006).  "New Fossil Ratite
(Aves: Palaeognathae) Eggshell Discoveries from the Late Miocene Baynunah Foramation of the
United Arab Emirates, Arabian Peninsula"  (PDF). Palaeontologia Electronica. 9  (1): 2A.  ISSN  1094-
8074.
20. ^ "OVPP-Struthio 8". olduvai-paleo.org.
21. ^ Andersson, Johan Gunnar  (1943). "Research into the prehistory of the Chinese". Bulletin of the
Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.  15: 1–300.

General references
 Andersson, Johan Gunnar (1943). "Researches into the prehistory of the
Chinese". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. 15: 1–300, plus 200
plates.
 Brands, Sheila (14 Aug 2008). "Taxon: Genus Struthio". Project: The Taxonomicon.
Retrieved 12 Jun 2012.
 Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003). "Ostriches". In Hutchins, Michael (ed.). Birds I Tinamous
and Ratites to Hoatzins. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 8 (2nd ed.).
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7876-5784-0.
 Hou, L.; Zhou, Z.; Zhang, F.; Wang, Z. (Aug 2005). "A Miocene ostrich fossil from
Gansu Province, northwest China". Chinese Science Bulletin. 50 (16): 1808–
1810. Bibcode:2005ChSBu..50.1808H. doi:10.1360/982005-575. ISSN 1861-9541. 
S2CID 129449364.
 Janz, Lisa; et al. (2009). "Dating North Asian surface assemblages with ostrich
eggshell: Implications for palaeoecology and extirpation". Journal of Archaeological
Science. 36 (9): 1982–1989. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.05.012.
 "Seagull Publishers:: K-8 segment | Books | Practice manuals" . Seagull Learning –
A Unit of Seagull Publishers Private Limited. 7.
show

Palaeognath genera

Wikidata: Q2576337

Wikispecies: Struthio

ADW: Struthio

BHL: 727062

BioLib: 8309

BOLD: 4611

CoL: 7PJW

EoL: 45513748
 EPPO: 1STRUG

Fossilworks: 39278

GBIF: 2495148

iNaturalist: 20524

IRMNG: 1033636

ITIS: 174374

NBN: NHMSYS0020930493

NCBI: 8800

Plazi: 0FBE5A9B-C3EF-A7FB-BA57-04251798E628

uBio: 1

ZooBank: B37DFABC-BE36-4A78-9812-0B9D89410BDC

Spain
Authority control:
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National 
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Categories: 
 Struthio
 Extant Miocene first appearances
 Flightless birds
 Miocene birds
 Ratites
 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
 This page was last edited on 8 August 2023, at 05:29 (UTC).
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