RATITE

Ratite

A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of the superorder Palaeognathae. There is still some controversy regarding the systematics involved. Some sources state that Ratites are synonymous with Struthioniformes, while other sources state that Ratites are the same group, only that the order Struthioniformes contains only the Ostrich and possibly the Elephant Bird. Ratites belong to the modern bird superorder Palaeognathae which consists of ratites and tinamous . Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum – hence the name from the Latin ratis . Without this to anchor their wing muscles, they could not fly ...

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ratite

Noun

  1. A bird of the order of Struthioniformes, a diverse group of large running, flightless birds, mostly extinct, but including the cassowary, elephant bird, emu, kiwi, moa, ostrich, rhea and tinamou


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: ratite
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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