Vegavis iaai (Clarke et al. 2005; Late Cretaceous, 67 mya) was originally considered a duck-like member of the Euornithes, but here nests with Pseudocryptura in the LRT. The fossil lacks a skull. What Clarke et al. considered a sacrum (yellow) is the inside of a humerus. The open humerus is a tibia.

Pseudocrypturus cercanaxius (Houde 1988; Early Eocene) was originally considered a northern hemisphere ancestor to ratites (like the ostrich, Struthio). Today these primitive flightless birds are chiefly restricted to the southern hemisphere. It could be that early birds did start in the South and had migrated to the North during the Paleocene (66-56 mya).

Since ratites are basal to extant birds, and Pseudocrypturus is basal to ratites (paleognaths), Pseudocrypturus is also quite similar to the ancestor of all extant birds despite its late appearance in the early Eocene. Perhaps something very much like it was one of the few survivors of the K-T extinction event.

It's notable that Pseudocrypturus has long legs. Early ducks, like Presbyornis, and basal raptors, like Sagittarius, also had long legs. Evidence is building that this is the primitive condition for the clade of living birds arising from the K-T extinction event.

Apteryx australis (Shaw 1813) The extant flightless kiwi has an elongate naris that extends to the tip of its beak. Maybe two teeth are there. Here it nests with Pseudocrypturus, but flightless traits push it toward Struthio, by convergence. in the pre-cladistic era, Calder (1978, 1984) considered the kiwi a phylogenetic dwarf derived from the larger moa, but that was invalidated by Worthy et al. 2013 and the large reptile tree.

Skull courtesy of Digimorph.org and used with permission.

Gallinago gallinago (Linneaus 1758; 27 cm tall) is the extant common snipe, a wading bird traditionally considered a member of the Charadriiformes. Here it nests with the kiwi and woodcock.

Scolopax rusticola (Linneaus 1758, 30 cm tall) is the extant Eurasian woodcock, traditionally considered a wading bird close to plovers. Here the woodcock, which ranges across the old world, is related to the kiwi, Apteryx, making it a late survivor of earlier radiation prior to the ratites. Note the loss of the upper temporal fenestra and the broad lacrimal contact with the squamosal along with the quadrate anterior to the orbit. The retroarticular process is robust and descends deeply.

Calder WA 1978. The kiwi. Scientific American 239(1):132–142.

Calder WA 1984. Size, function and life history. 448 pp. Cambridge (Harvard U Press).

Clarke JA, Tambussi CP, Noriega JI, Erickson GM and Ketcham RA 2005. Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous. Nature 433, 305–308.

Gmelin JF 1789. The Catalogue of Life based on The Integrated Taxonomic Information System.

Houde PW 1986. Ostrich ancestors found in the northern hemisphere suggest new hypothesis of ratite origins. Nature 324:563–565.

Houde PW 1988. Paleognathus birds from the early Tertiary of the northern hemisphere. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 22. 147 pp.

Linnaeus C 1758. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata.

Shaw 1813. Naturalist's Miscellany 19:

Worthy, TH. et al. (5 coauthors) 2013. Miocene fossils show that kiwi (Apteryx, Apterygidae) are probably not phyletic dwarves. Paleornithological Research 2013, Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Retrieved 16 September 2017.

wiki/Cinereous_tinamou - Crypturellus
wiki/Vegavis
wiki/Pseudocrypturus
wiki/Apteryx, Kiwi
wiki/Eurasian_woodcock https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Common_snipe