Gallinuloides
Encyclopedia
Gallinuloides is a prehistoric genus
of primitive galliform
bird
. It lived about 48 million years ago in North America
. The type specimen was found in a Green River Formation
deposit in Wyoming
.
The former Gallinuloides prentici was eventually placed (after a brief stint in Grus) in a distinct genus Paragrus; it is no galliform but belongs to the Geranoididae (Lambrecht 1933:520).
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of primitive galliform
Galliformes
Galliformes are an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game bird, containing turkey, grouse, chicken, New and Old World Quail, ptarmigan, partridge, pheasant, and the Cracidae. Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds or galliforms...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
. It lived about 48 million years ago in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The type specimen was found in a Green River Formation
Green River Formation
The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes. The sediments are deposited in very fine layers, a dark layer during the growing season and a light-hue inorganic layer in winter. Each pair of layers is called a varve and...
deposit in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
.
The former Gallinuloides prentici was eventually placed (after a brief stint in Grus) in a distinct genus Paragrus; it is no galliform but belongs to the Geranoididae (Lambrecht 1933:520).