Struthionidae
African ostrich ( Struthio camelus )
The ostrich ( Struthionidae ) are a family of ratites ( Struthioniformes ). Today it includes only a single species, the African ostrich (Struthio camelus ). Addition, however, there are a number of fossil and subfossil finds from Asia and Europe, which are attributed to the family.
The ostriches are divided into two subfamilies: the Struthioninae to which a " modern " representative of the African ostrich belongs with its subspecies, and the Palaeotinae with the very small and primitive Palaeotis weigelti from the Middle Eocene.
Features
The ostriches differ in the anatomy of other ratites by their long, thin upper arm bone, where the foramen pneumaticum absent while the radius and ulna are relatively short. The Carpometacarpus has additional openings between the two bones of the metacarpus; the Scopulocoracoid has large fossae to Acrocoracoid and glenoid. The illioischiatische opening is not tail -shaped enclosed by the merging of the seat and hipbone.
System
Subfamily Palaeotinae
- Genus Palaeotis † Palaeotis weigelti †
Subfamily Struthioninae
- Genus ostriches (Struthio ) Asian Ostrich (Struthio asiaticus ) †
- Struthio brachydactylus †
- African ostrich (Struthio camelus )
- Arabian Ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus ) †
- Struthio coppensi †
- Giant ostrich (Struthio dmanisensis ) †
- Struthio karatheodoris †
- Struthio novorossicus †
- Struthio orlovi †