Rhynchaeites
| Rhynchaeites Temporal range: Middle Eocene
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| Rhynchaeites species fossil | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Pelecaniformes |
| Family: | Threskiornithidae |
| Genus: | †Rhynchaeites Wittich, 1898 |
| Species: | †R. messelensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Rhynchaeites messelensis Wittich, 1898
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Rhynchaeites is an extinct genus of Threskiornithidae related to modern ibises and has a single named species Rhynchaeites meselensis. It lived in today's Germany during the mid-Eocene and its remains were found in the famous Messel pit.
However, leg bone fossils of a similar bird were found in the Early Eocene Fur Formation in Denmark. It has been hypothesized that the supposed parrot relative Mopsitta tanta, known from a single humerus bone, is the same bird as the leg fossils and thus actually belongs in Rhynchaeites too.
References
- "The Origin and Evolution of Birds" by Alan Feduccia
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