Eogruidae

Eogruidae (also spelled Eogruiidae in some publications) is a family of large, flightless birds that inhabited Asia from the Eocene to Pliocene epochs. Related to modern ostriches, it was formerly thought to be related to cranes, limpkins and trumpeters and that the similarities with ostriches were due to similar speciations to cursoriality, with both groups showing reduced numbers of toes to two in some taxa. It has been suggested that competition from true ostriches has caused the extinction of these birds, though this has never been formally tested and several ostrich taxa do occur in the late Cenozoic of Asia and some species do occur in areas where ostrich fossils have also been found. It has been suggested that the family is paraphyletic, with Ergilornithidae more closely related to modern ostriches than to Eogrus or Sonogrus.