Oedicnemus longirostris (aka:Burhinus oedicnemus Linneaus 1758) is the extant Eurasian stone curlew or thick-knee. Length: up to 46cm. Large yellow bulging eyes are adaptations to nocturnal hunting of small tetrapods and invertebrates. Long legs and a terrestrial lifestyle are primitive for all neognath, euornithine birds, but this appears to be a reversal, after this trait skips immediate ancestors.=. This taxon is a sister to plovers. Note the vestigial pedal digit 1.

Gallinuloides wyomingensis (Eastman 1900; Mayr and Weidig 2004; Early Eocene) was considered a galliform (chicken-like bird), perhaps close to megapodes. Here it nests with Balearica and Jacana (below), taxa not previously mentioned, but as small as a plover. Note the tall forehead, as in Balearica. Only four phalanges appear on toe 4, as in Balearica.

Balearica regulorum (= Ardea regulorum, Anthropoides regularum, Bennett 1834; extant; 1m tall, 2m wingspan) is the gray crowned crane, and a member of the Gruidae/Gruiformes. In the LRT Balearica is most closely related to the neotenous plovers and kildeers (genus: Charadrius) and shares with them, a short bill. Twin bumps appear on the postfrontals. Only four phalanges appear on pedal digit 4, which is as long as pedal digit 3.

Jacana jacana (Linneaus 1766; extant; 22cm long) is the wattled jacana, a bird with the largest feet relative to its body size. With these it is capable of walking on lilypads without sinking. The closest tested sister in the LRT is Balearica.

Bennett RT 1834. On two new species of Crowned Cranes [Anthropoidea, Vivil.] from Africa. Zoological Society Proceedings pt. 1, 1833:118–119. Oken, Isis, 1835, col. 549–550.

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

Linneaus C von 1766. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio duodecima, reformata. pp. 1–532. Holmiæ. (Salvius).

Mayr G. and Weidig I 2004. The Early Eocene bird Gallinuloides wyomingensis—a stem group representative of Galliformes. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (2): 211–217.

Pallas PS 1781. Katalog rasteniyam, nakhodyashchimsya v Moskve v sadu yego prevoskhoditel'stva deystvitel'snogo statskogo sovetnika i Imperatorskogo Vopitatel'nogo doma znamenitogo blagodetelya, Prokofiya Akinfiyevich Demidova, sochinyonnyy P. S. Pallasom, adademikom sankt-peterburgskim (Saint Petersburg, 1781).

wiki/Gallinuloides
wiki/Balearica
wiki/Jacana