Eudromia


Eudromia is a genus of birds in the tinamou family. This genus comprises two crested members of this South American family.

Etymology

Eudromia comes from two Greek words, eu meaning well or nicely, and dromos meaning a running escape. These definitions together mean, nice running escape, which refers to their habit of escaping predators by running.

Taxonomy

Tinamous are paleognaths related to the flightless ratites. They are probably close in appearance to the flying ancestors of the ratites. Unlike other ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers.
This genus has a mere two species, but the elegant crested tinamou has diversified into a considerable number of subspecies:
The species are:

Extant species

Fossils

MPLK-03, a fossil specimen from Argentina, possibly belongs to Eudromia and surpasses the extinct E. elegans and E. formosa in size by 2.2–8% and 6–14%, respectively. It existed during the Late Pleistocene, around the time of the Last [Glacial Maximum].