Back رواكض Arabic مسطحات الصدر ARZ Ratite English Ratitae Spanish بیتیغهها Persian Sileälastaiset Finnish Ratites French Rinfûgels Frisian Ratites Galician Ratite ID
| Ratites | |
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| Scientific classification | |
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| Order: | Struthioniformes* Latham, 1790
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Struthionidae (ostriches) | |
The ratites are a group of medium to large birds, most of which are flightless. Most of them, including the largest (moas and elephant birds) are now extinct.
Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum. In a flying bird the sternum anchors the wing muscles.
Most parts of the former super-continent Gondwana have ratites,[1] or did have until the fairly recent past. Their closest living relatives are the tinamous of South America.[2][3]
The classification used here includes all ratites in the order Struthioniformes, but not the tinamous. This may change in future.
- ↑ Gondwana included the southern hemisphere continents plus Africa, Madagascar, Arabia and the Indian subcontinent.
- ↑ Haddrath O. & Baker A. 2001 (2001). "Complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequences of extinct birds: Ratite phylogenetics and the vicariance biogeography hypothesis". Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 268 (1470): 939–945. doi:10.1098/rspb.2001.1587. PMC 1088691. PMID 11370967.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ Cooper A. et al 2001 (2001). "Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of two extinct moas clarify ratite evolution". Nature. 409 (6821): 704–707. Bibcode:2001Natur.409..704C. doi:10.1038/35055536. PMID 11217857. S2CID 4430050. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)