Palaeotringa Temporal range:Paleocene,66 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Ornithurae
Class:	Aves
Genus:	†Palaeotringa Marsh, 1870
Species
P. littoralis Marsh, 1870 (type) P. vagans Marsh, 1872 and see text

Palaeotringa is a prehistoricbirdgenus that was discovered byO. C. Marsh during the late 19th century Americanbone wars. Its remains were found in the controversialHornerstown Formation ofNew Jersey (United States) which straddles theCretaceous-Paleocene boundary some 66 million years ago. Though it cannot be said if these birds lived before or after theCretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, they were in all likelihood wading birds that inhabited the coasts of the northwesternAtlantic.

Twospecies are assigned to this genus nowadays,Palaeotringa littoralis andP. vagans. They were for some time believed to be primitive, smallGruiformes and later on placed in theform taxon "Graculavidae", the "transitional shorebirds". Though they appear to be earlyCharadriiformes - and may well be so, for thisorder seems to date back to the Cretaceous - their remains are too fragmentary forcladistic analysis to say anything more precise than that they areNeornithes like all birds alive today.^[1] Instead of being Charadriiformes, they might be some distinct but ratherbasal member of theNeoaves, close to the common ancestor of some or all of such birds ascranes,rails,storks and/orherons perhaps. Although their exact origin is not known, it is likely that some primitive and probably fairly small ancestral birds of these lineages were around at the end of the Cretaceous. It may be noted, however, that the Hornerstown Formation seems to contain little else but marine and seashore animals.

There exist twodistaltibiotarsi from another bird species, specimensANSP 13361 andAMNH 25221. Initially assigned to this genus too, one bone each of"Palaeotringa" vetus was found in the Hornerstown Formation and in theMaastrichtianLance Formation inWyoming. Later analyses concluded that they were not of aPalaeotringa and at first the bones were assigned toTelmatornis priscus. More recently, a reevaluation considered them neither close toPalaeotringa nor to Charadriiformes in general. Rather, the bones share some characters withGruidae andIdiornithidae as well as thepresbyornithidTelmabates.^[2] Much like with its erstwhile relatives, cladistic analysis is unable to resolve the affinities of thistaxon for dearth of material.^[1]

• Hope, Sylvia (2002): The Mesozoic radiation of Neornithes.In:Chiappe, Luis M. & Witmer, Lawrence M. (eds.): Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs: 339–388.ISBN 0-520-20094-2
• Mortimer, Michael (2004): The Theropod Database:Phylogeny of taxa. Retrieved 2013-MAR-02.

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