Lithornithidae

Pseudocrypturus cercanaxius in Zoologisk Museum in Copenhagen.

• Europe ( Messel )
• Western North America

The Lithornithidae are an extinct family Steißhuhnähnlicher birds that lived from the lower Paleocene to lower Eocene. To the family of three genera are counted Lithornis, Paracathartes and Pseudocrypturus.

The Lithornithidae among the Urkiefervögeln ( Paleognathae ), and are therefore, in addition to the Steißhühnern, related to the ratites.

They are very similar to Steißhühnern, but had well -developed wings, a more pronounced ability to fly and had large, curved claws, which were still suitable for a sit up in trees. The claws of the bottom-dwelling Tinamous are flat. The skull bones were not completely grown together, keeled sternum, a poorly -knit pygostyle wore a short tail.

The first person to describe Peter Houde compared their beak with which the Kiwis and assumed that they in the soil of the wooded flood plains of western North America poked so the Paleogene by invertebrates.

Swell

• Alan Feduccia: The Origin and Evolution of the Birds. Pages 271 -275, 2nd edition, Yale University Press, New Haven / London, 1999, ISBN 0300078617
• Palaos Lithornithiformes

• Aves
• Fossil bird