#eremopezus

During the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene, the environment of Jebel Qatrani formation of Faiyum, Egypt was as lush as you could imagine, with tropical forests, and a vast system of wetlands, lakes and rivers connecting to the warm Tethys Sea. As you would expect, such a place was teeming with birds. The birds living here would have no idea that 30 million years later, the Sahara desert would bury all this greenery. But for now, it is an oasis where birds of a feather flock together.

Goliathia: One of the earliest known relatives of the shoebill, arguably one of the most awesome birds alive today.

Nycticorax: An early member of the modern night-heron genus. It is not named, but can be assigned to the genus thanks to the shape of its limb bones.

Xenerodiops: An early member of the stork family with a short, recurved beak. It probably fed like modern wood storks, probing the water with the beak open, snapping it shut on passing fish.

Nuphranassa: A member of the modern jacana group, but much larger than any living species at about the size of a chicken.

Janipes: Another large jacana. Not as large as Nuphranassa, but still larger than any modern jacana. One must wonder what these guys were walking on.

Palaeoephippiorhynchus: An early stork well known from this period. It closely resembles the saddle-billed and black-necked storks, but was markedly smaller in size.

By José Carlos Cortés on @quetzalcuetzpalin-art​

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Name: Eremopezus eocaenus

Status: Extinct

First Described: 1904

Described By: Andrews 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Palaeognathae, Eremopezidae 

What is Eremopezus? A mystery. It is probably from the Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt, living about 30.2 - 29.5 million years ago, in the Rupelian age of the Oligocene of the Paleogene (it was once thought that this formation dated to the Eocene, but it has since been re-dated). This formation is notable for the significant number of transitional mammal and bird forms - between the early members of groups known from the Eocene and the close to modern forms from the Neogene. Eremopezus is mysterious both for its age - which makes finding its phylogenetic affinities more difficult than if it were, say, younger and more similar to modern forms - and its incompleteness - it is only known from very limited material of the leg, discovered in two batches, one at the beginning of the 1900s and the other more recently. It was originally considered to be a ratite - but it may, in fact, not be a ratite at all. Eremopezus has a lot of traits that actually aren’t found in ratites at all, but are unique or found in other birds (ie, the Neognaths - the group containing literally all other birds). In fact, it has similar traits to modern Secretarybirds and Shoebill, which are both from Africa as well (though it’s probably not related to either). Still, recent analyses have grouped it with the Elephant Birds - but the jury remains out. 

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable 

It is entirely possible that Eremopezus is actually its own distinct lineage of ratite - since almost all ratites evolved flightlessness independently (apart from emu and cassowary which are very closely related), Since most ancestors of ratites and modern ratites are mainly known from recent fossil records, this marks a very early experiment in ratite-like body plan and lifestyle amongst Palaeognaths (given that most large flightless birds of the Paleogene were actually from other bird groups - see Gastornis and the early Terror Birds and Bathornithids). This would also make it a very unique and convergent sort of Paleognath, having evolved traits similar to other bird groups independently. Eremopezus was probably about the size of a modern large rhea or small emu, though it had very robust foot bones that would have been able to support a heavier body than those of the rhea. It probably stood as tall as a person. As such, it probably was flightless, though of course it is difficult to determine that without further fossils and it is possible that it could fly. Its toes flared out from the foot like that of a Cassowary, allowing for the weight to be supported over a larger surface area. The toes would also have been bulkily padded, allowing for the toes to be very flexible and mobile, so it moved around on foot a lot regardless of its flight status and may have used its feet for other activities. 

By Scott Reid on @drawingwithdinosaurs 

Eremopezus lived in the Jebel Qatrani Formation, an environment of freshwater rivers and shallow low-lying lakes near the Tethys Sea. It was a very tropical environment with monsoon seasons and swamps, and while reed grasses that characterize Egypt today were present, they were much rarer. Many mammals were present including Creodonts and Anthracotheriids, two types of completely extinct mammal lineages that looked like squat felines and elongated hippos respectively; an ancient primate, some shrews and hyraxes and even a marsupial. When it comes to birds, there was a relative of the shoebill, a relative of storks, a relative of herons, as well as cormorants, jacanas, and turacos. There were also crocodilians, gharials, snakes, and turtles. In this environment, it is likely that Eremopezus was some sort of herbivore, even a fruit eater, though without actual fossils of the head or gut contents we can’t know for sure. It may have gone extinct due to habitat turnover as grasses began to spread further in Africa. 

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eremopezus