A Giant Ostrich from the Lower Pleistocene Nihewan Formation of North China, with a Review of the Fossil Ostriches of China

A large incomplete ostrich femur from the Lower Pleistocene of North China, kept at Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), is described. It was found by Father Emile Licent in 1925 Nihewan Formation (dated about 1.8 Ma) Hebei Province. On basis minimum circumference shaft, a mass 300 kg, twice that modern ostrich, obtained. The bone remarkably robust, more so than recent, Late Pleistocene, Struthio anderssoni and resembles regard Pachystruthio Kretzoi, 1954, genus known Hungary, Georgia Crimea, to which specimen referred, as indet. This find testifies wide geographical distribution very massive ostriches Early Eurasia. giant contemporaneous with early hominins who inhabited region Pleistocene.