Xenorhynchopsis
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| Xenorhynchopsis Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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| Restoration of X. tibialis. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Phoenicopteriformes |
| Family: | Phoenicopteridae |
| Genus: | †Xenorhynchopsis De Vis, 1905 |
| Species | |
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Xenorhynchopsis is an extinct genus of flamingo from the Pliocene to Pleistocene Lake Eyre basin of Australia. Initially described as species of stork, the two known Xenorhynchopsis species are vastly different in size. X. minor is the older and smaller of the two species, ranging from the Pliocene to Pleistocene and being described as having reached a size smaller than that of the lesser flamingo. X. tibialis meanwhile appears to have been restricted to Pleistocene strata and was notably bigger, being counted as one of the biggest known flamingos in the fossil record.
The fossils of Xenorhynchopsis were initially described by Charles Walter de Vis in 1905, who recognized two species he named Xenorhynchopsis minor and Xenorhynchopsis tibialis respectively. Possibly due to the fact that de Vis lacked flamingo material in his collection to compare the fossils to, he assigned the genus to the Ciconiidae, the storks. X. tibialis, the larger of the two species, was described on the basis of a humerus and a tibiotarsus found in the Lower Cooper Creek. The smaller species X. minor meanwhile is known from multiple remains of the humerus and tibiotarsus discovered in Pliocene to Pleistocene sediments of Lake Kanunka and the Lower Cooper Creek. Rich and colleagues, who published a revision of the Pliocene and Pleistocene flamingo fossils of material, write that the remains are too fragmentary to determine whether or not these species should be placed in the same genera as modern flamingos. They subsequently retain the genus names coined by de Vis for the sake of convenience.[1][2]
