Elornis

Elornis is an ancient type of bird that is related to modern flamingos. This bird lived a very long time ago during a period called the Late Oligocene in a place named Ronzon in France.

Scientists first gave this bird its name, Elornis, in the 1850s. A French scientist named Henri Milne-Edwards helped to describe it later.

For many years, Elornis was thought to be a true flamingo, part of the group called Phoenicopteridae. But newer studies suggest it might have been an earlier relative of flamingos. Learning more about Elornis is difficult because the fossils used to study it cannot be found today. Scientists only have the original descriptions and pictures made by Milne-Edwards to learn about this ancient bird.

History

The name Elornis was first used by a scientist named Auguste Aymard in 1855 when he talked about old bird bones found in France. But Aymard didn’t give enough details, so the name wasn’t officially recognized at first. Later, another scientist named Henri Milne-Edwards studied the same bones and gave them better descriptions and pictures. Because of Milne-Edwards’ work, Elornis became a proper name for these ancient birds.

Scientists have thought Elornis was a kind of flamingo, but newer studies suggest it might have been an earlier type of bird related to flamingos. Even though Aymard was the first to use the name, it was Milne-Edwards who really described these birds, so Milne-Edwards is now credited with naming them.

Description

The bone called the humerus in Elornis littoralis was smaller than the same bone in a flamingo. Another species, Elornis grandis, had a humerus that was about the same size as a flamingo's humerus. However, we don’t know which kind of flamingo was used for this comparison.

Classification

Elornis was first thought to be a kind of flamingo by a scientist named Auguste Aymard. Another scientist, Milne-Edwards, agreed with this. A scientist named Olson also agreed, though he could not study the fossil himself. Many papers said Elornis belonged to the flamingo family Phoenicopteridae. But a scientist named Mayr thinks Elornis may not be a true flamingo because it looks different from other ancient ones.