A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or – less accurately – as songbirds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes, which facilitates perching, amongst other features specific to their evolutionary history in Australaves.
The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colorful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes, though in many kingfishers one of these is missing.
The mousebirds are a family of birds. They are the sister group to the clade Eucavitaves, which includes the cuckoo roller (Leptosomiformes), trogons (Trogoniformes), Bucerotiformes, Coraciformes and Piciformes. The mousebirds are therefore given order status as Coliiformes. This group is confined to sub-Saharan Africa, and is the only bird order confined entirely to that continent. They had a wider range in prehistoric times, with a widespread distribution in Europe and North America during the Paleocene.
Anas is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was split into four separate genera. The genus now contains 31 living species. The name Anas is the Latin for "duck".
Palaelodus is an extinct genus of birds distantly related to flamingos. They were slender birds with long, thin legs and a long neck. Little is known about the shape of their skull or beak. Some paleontologists think Palaelodus was able to swim under water, chasing prey, but the morphology of their feet seems not very well adapted for diving. Rather, it is more likely that they were adapted to browsing for food while swimming or standing in shallow water.
Archaeopsittacus is a genus of prehistoric parrot. It is known from deposits of either Late Oligocene or Early Miocene age at Verreaux near Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France. A single species, Archaeopsittacus verreauxi, is known.
The Pelagornithidae, commonly called pelagornithids, pseudodontorns, bony-toothed birds, false-toothed birds or pseudotooth birds, are a prehistoric family of large seabirds. Their fossil remains have been found all over the world in rocks dating between the Early Paleocene and the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary.
Chelotriton is an extinct genus of prehistoric salamanders that lived in Europe and Central Asia during the Neogene. It closely resembles the extant genera Tylototriton and Echinotriton.
Palaelodidae is a family of extinct birds in the group Phoenicopteriformes, which today is represented only by the flamingos. They have been described as "swimming flamingos."
The European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS) is a 1,100 km (680 mi) long system of rifts formed in the foreland of the Alps as the lithosphere responded to the effects of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogenies. The system began to form during the Late Eocene and parts, particularly the Upper and Lower Rhine Grabens, remain seismically active today and are responsible for most of the larger earthquakes in Europe, north of the Alps.
Rhenanorallus is a genus of prehistoric rail which existed in Mainz Basin, Germany during the late Oligocene or early Miocene. It was described by Gerald Mayr in 2010, from a humerus. The type species is Rhenanorallus rhenanus.
The genus Colymboides contains three species of early loon dating from the late Oligocene or early Miocene. They are considered to be the earliest known unambiguous gaviiform fossils. The genus is widely known from early Priabonian – about 37 million years ago in the Late Eocene – to Early Miocene limnic and marine rocks of western Eurasia north of the Alpide belt, between the Atlantic and the former Turgai Sea. It is usually placed in the Gaviidae already, but usually in a subfamily Colymboidinae, with the modern-type loons making up the Gaviinae. But the Colymboides material is generally quite distinct from modern loons, and may actually belong in a now-extinct family of primitive gaviiforms. The best studied species, Colymboides minutus, was described by Robert Storer as being much smaller than modern loons and not as well adapted to diving.
Palaeortyx is an extinct genus of flying granivores galliform bird that lived 28.4 to 2.588 million years ago. It lived from the early Eocene to the early Pliocene, and may be a phasianid or odontophorid. It is known from several fossils found in Germany, France, Italy, Hungary and Romania.
Hoazinavis is an extinct genus of early hoatzin from Late Oligocene and Early Miocene deposits of Brazil. It was collected in 2008 from the Tremembé Formation of São Paulo, Brazil. It was first named by Gerald Mayr, Herculano Alvarenga and Cécile Mourer-Chauviré in 2011 and the type species is Hoazinavis lacustris.
Bavaripsitta ballmanni is a prehistoric parrot described from a fossil tarsometatarsus found in middle Miocene freshwater deposits in the Nördlinger Ries of western Bavaria in Southern Germany. It is the only species in the genus Bavaripsitta. The generic name derives from "Bavaria", and a diminutive form of the Latin for "parrot". The specific epithet honours Peter Ballmann, who first recognised the described material as coming from a parrot, for his work on the fossil birds of Nördlinger Ries.
Bathornis is an extinct lineage of birds related to modern day seriemas, that lived in North America about 37–20 million years ago. Like the closely related and also extinct phorusrhacids, it was a flightless predator, occupying predatory niches in environments classically considered to be dominated by mammals. It was a highly diverse and successful genus, spanning a large number of species that occurred from the Priabonian Eocene to the Burdigalian Miocene epochs.
Taubacrex is an extinct genus of birds of the family Quercymegapodiidae from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene (Deseadan) Tremembé Formation of the Taubaté Basin in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The type species is Taubacrex granivora. In the original description, Herculano Alvarenga classified it as a member of family Rallidae. It provides the earliest fossil record of gastroliths in birds of the order Galliformes.
Petralca is an extinct genus of loon found in Oligocene and Miocene deposits of Austria. The type and only species, Petralca austriaca, was described in 1987. It was originally described as an auk but was reinterpreted as a member of Gaviiformes by Göhlich & Mayr (2018).
Oligocolius is an unusual genus of extinct mousebird from the early to late Oligocene epoch of Germany. Oligocolius is known from two species, the type species O. brevitarsus and O. psittacocephalon. Oligocolius is a member of the family of modern mousebirds (Coliidae) and is broadly similar to them in shape. However, unlike modern mouse birds the skull and beak of Oligocolius closely resembles those of parrots, and appears to be specialised for a distinct lifestyle not found in living mousebirds.
