What is considered a ratite?
Ratite, any bird whose sternum (breastbone) is smooth, or raftlike, because it lacks a keel to which flight muscles could be anchored. The group includes some of the largest birds of all time, such as the moa and the elephant bird (Aepyornis). Extant ratites include the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, and kiwi.
Are turkeys ratites?
A ratite is a bird that does not have a keel (the breastbone of a bird). Ratites do not fly, so they do not need the strong breast muscles typical in birds that have a keel (such as chickens, turkeys, and ducks). Ratites include ostriches, emus, and rheas.
Are all flightless birds ratites?
Flightless bird, any of several birds that have, through evolution, lost the ability to fly as they adapted to new environments. Most living forms belong to the order Struthioniformes (a group that includes the ostrich, the rhea, the cassowary, the kiwi, and the emu); however, they are more commonly known as ratites.
Is a flamingo A ratite?
Flamingos or flamingoes /fləˈmɪŋɡoʊz/ are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, the only bird family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. Four flamingo species are distributed throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean, and two species are native to Africa, Asia, and Europe.
What is the scientific name for flightless birds?
Ratites are flightless birds that lack the keel (high ridge) on the breastbone to which the flight muscles of flying birds are attached.
Are ratites dinosaurs?
Ratites. With giant, claw-like feet and drooping, dinosaur-like skin, it should come to no surprise that the Cassowary is often called the “Dinosaur bird”. Ratites are believed to have originally come from Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent that broke up around 180 million years ago.
Can ratites swim?
All ratites may swim. Ostriches and rheas are gregarious, diurnal birds, with males being territorial and entertaining polygamous social structures during breeding season. Emus are usually found alone or in pairs except when they form large groups on the move or in places where water and food are abundant.
Which order of ratites are the largest?
African ostrich
The African ostrich is the largest living ratite. A large member of this species can be nearly 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) tall, weigh as much as 156 kilograms (344 lb), and can outrun a horse. Of the living species, the Australian emu is next in height, reaching up to 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) tall and about 50 kilograms (110 lb).
What makes a ratite different from a flightless bird?
This indicates that the distinctive flightless nature of ratites is the result of convergent evolution. Two key differences between flying and flightless birds are the smaller wing bones of flightless birds and the absent (or greatly reduced) keel on their breastbone. (The keel anchors muscles needed for wing movement.)
Which is the first branch of the ratite family?
By 2014, a mitochondrial DNA phylogeny including fossil members placed ostriches on the first ( basal) branch, followed by rheas, then a clade consisting of moas and tinamous, followed by the final two branches, a clade of emus plus cassowaries, and one of elephant birds plus kiwis.
Which is the only flightless bird in the Palaeognathae?
Jump to navigation Jump to search. A ratite is any of a diverse group of flightless and mostly large and long-legged birds of the infraclass Palaeognathae. Kiwis, however, are relatively much smaller and shorter-legged, as well as being the only nocturnal ratites.
What are the physical characteristics of a ratite?
Ratites in general have many physical characteristics in common, which are often not shared by the family Tinamidae, or tinamous. First, the breast muscles are underdeveloped. They do not have keeled sterna. Their wishbones (furculae) are almost absent.
Are there any flightless birds in a ratite?
The systematics involved have been in flux. Some sources state that ratites include all the flightless birds of the Palaeognathae; previously, all these birds had been assigned to the order Struthioniformes, which is more recently regarded as containing only the ostrich.
What makes a ratite different from other birds?
Their legs are stronger and do not have air chambers, except the femur. Their tail and flight feathers have retrogressed or have become decorative plumes. They have no feather vanes, which means they do not need to oil their feathers, hence they have no preen or oil gland.
Which is the most common family of ratites?
List of ratites 1 Struthionidae 2 Apterygidae 3 Dinornithidae 4 Dromaiidae 5 Casuariidae 6 Aepyornithidae 7 References
Where are the ratites found in the world?
Ratites are native to most of the continents and a few large islands of the southern hemisphere (ostriches in Africa, rheas in South America, emus in Australia, cassowaries in Australia and New Guinea, kiwis in New Zealand; see Chapter 17 ).
