Palaeotis is an old Paleognath from Germany, specifically The Geiseltal Locality as well as the Messel Pit, making its temporal range being between 48 and 40 million years ago, between the Ypresian and Bartonian of the Eocene of the Paleogene. Palaeotis is definitely noteworthy in being a Palaeognath that might be a stem-ostrich – it seems to represent an intermediate morphology between flighted early Paleognath and the later flightless ratites such as ostriches. It had long legs, though it was only about a meter tall, and it had a narrow beak like the contemporaneous Lithornithids, though it was flightless and lived in forests. It had very slender legs which would have allowed it to run fast, which is definitely interesting – as it lived in forests, and modern fast Paleognaths live in open areas. It had shorter wings, indicated that it wasn’t really using them, and didn’t have a keel, so it definitely couldn’t fly. It had, in short, a ratite morphology, despite living at the same time as the Lithornithids and other volant Paleognaths. It might have been sexually dimorphic, but that hypothesis hasn’t been tested adequately. It probably fed upon small animals like lizards and little mammals. It might be ratite-like Lithornithid itself, or a stem-Rhea, but for now a lot of evidence points to it being an early transitional form between the flighted early Paleognaths and the later flightless Ostriches.
Plot Designing 