Lexic.us

Definition of Ratitae

1. Noun. Used in former classifications to include all ratite bird orders.

Medical Definition of Ratitae

1. An order of birds in which the wings are small, rudimentary, or absent, and the breastbone is destitute of a keel. The ostrich, emu, and apteryx are examples. Origin: NL, fr. L. Ratis a raft; cf. L. Ratitus marked with the figure of a raft. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ratitae

Literary usage of Ratitae

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Elementary Zoology by Vernon Lyman Kellogg (1901)
"(ratitae).—The ostriches, familiar to all from pictures and to some from live individuals in zoological gardens and menageries, or stuffed specimens in ..."

2. The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology by John Edward Marr (1898)
"... of the ratitae, whilst Ichthyornis and allied forms are placed in the sub-order ... ratitae ..."

3. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1910)
"The ratitae branched off, probably during the Eocene period, from that still indifferent stock which gave rise to the Tinami-f ..."

4. Forms of Animal Life: A Manual of Comparative Anatomy : with Descriptions of by George Rolleston, William Hatchett Jackson (1888)
"The scapula and coracoid are fused in ratitae and connected by ligament in ... It is invaded more or less by ossification in ratitae, and in an old Ostrich ..."

5. The Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and by Hugh Chisholm (1910)
"The ratitae branched off, probably during the Eocene period, ... stock were still in possession of those archaic characters which distinguish ratitae from ..."

6. A Text-book of Zoology by Thomas Jeffery Parker, William Aitcheson Haswell (1921)
"In the ratitae, Anseres, Gallinae, and some other Birds the young when hatched ... The ratitae furnish an interesting case of discontinuous distribution. ..."

7. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: “a” Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature edited by Hugh Chisholm (1911)
"Another important point, in which the moas agree with the other ratitae and differ from the kiwis, are the branched, instead of simple, porous canals in the ..."

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