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Includes: ostrich, emu, kiwi, cassowaries, moas, rheas
Features: Flat breast bone, long legs and long neck (except kiwi)

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Common Name: Ostrich
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Struthioniformes
Family: Struthionidae
Genus: Struthio
Species: camelus

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Common Name: Ostrich
Habitat: Sub-Saharan Africa, live in sandy, open areas, stay in areas close to water
External Characteristics: Small head, largest eyes of any animal on land long hairless neck and legs, white tail feathers, female is slightly smaller, female is more gray-ish, male is a dark gray/black, two toes on each foot

Internal Characteristics: 46 foot long intestine (help them get nutrients), flat breast bone
Behavioral Characteristics: Very vocal (make whistling, snapping and booming calls), flightless

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Common Name: Emu
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Struthioniformes
Family: Dromaiidae
Genus: Dromaius
Species: novaehollandiae

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Common Name: Emu

Habitat: Australia- woodlands, dry forest, semi-desert, grassland
External Characteristics:  gray-brown feathers, three twos, long hairless legs, long neck, small wings, male and female are very hard to tell apart
Internal Characteristics: Flat breast bone
Behavioral Characteristics: vocal, make booming sounds (like ostriches)

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Common Name: Kiwi
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Struthioniformes
Family: Apterygidae
Genus: Apteryx
Species: haastii

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Common Name: Kiwi
Habitat: Found in New Zealand- grassland, damp, mossy, forests
External Characteristics: pear-shaped, hair like feathers, tough skin, great sense of smell, long beak, short legs
Internal Characteristics: Flat breast bone
Behavioral Characteristics: shy and timid, hide a lot

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Descent with Modification: Over time birds in Order Struthioniformes have continued to reproduce birds with usually long, hairless legs. They have evolved some over time, but have mostly stayed the same. Their wings have become smaller over time because they are no longer needed. The offspring of these birds are mostly the same as their ancestors.
Natural Selection: Order Struthioniformes' type of natural selection is directional. The extreme that is favored is being flightless. The birds evolved over time to have smaller wings. They aren't used for anything besides helping the birds balance sometimes. The type of natural selection in directional because birds in Order Struthioniformes evolved to be flightless with small wings.

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Geographic:
Emus live in Australia and kiwis live in New Zealand. Since their habitats are islands, they are geographically isolated. The birds can not exchange genetic information with large birds or birds like themselves in other parts of the world because of this.

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Every example in my taxonomic group has the same taxonomic classification until family. This shows the birds relatedness because they all have similar characteristics until it gets very specific.

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Ostriches: 80 chromosomes
Emus: 82 chromosomes
Kiwis: 80 chromosomes

The birds all have a very close number of chromosomes. Ostriches and kiwi have the same number of chromosomes and the emu is only off by 2. This shows that the genetic make up of the birds is very similar.

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Non Random:
Kiwis and emus both make calls to attract partners. Ostriches do a "dance" to attract theirs. All the example birds are attracted to birds that do certain things. They don't just chose a random bird to mate with, they chose their partner based on attractive features.

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Gradual:
The fossil from 65 million years ago features a long neck and long legs but also long wings. Ostriches, emus and kiwis now have small wings that they don't use for much. This shows that they have slowly evolved over time to make their wings smaller.

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Fossil #1 and Fossil #5 both show long, thin beaks and large eye sockets. Ostriches, emus, and kiwis all have long thin beaks, like the ones in the fossils. Ostriches also have the largest eyes of all land animals. The large eye sockets of the fossils are similar to the ones of modern ostriches. Fossil #4 shows long, skinny, yet strong, leg bones. Emus and ostriches have long legs that make them some of the fastest animals on the planet. The long neck can also be seen in the fossil, which is a characteristic of emus and ostriches. Fossils #3 and #2 show feathers that are similar to ones of ostriches and emus. The feathers of Fossil #2 are preserved and are the same color of modern emu and ostrich feathers.

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Divergent:
The birds in Order Struthioniformes evolved through divergent evolution. Kiwis live in New Zealand and emus live in Australia. They are geographically isolated. Emus, ostriches, and kiwis have some similarities and some differences, showing divergent evolution.

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Ostrich Leg Length: About 2.5 feet
Emu Leg Length: About 2 feet
Kiwi Leg Length: About 5 inches

Though all the birds may seem to have small or skinny legs, they are extremely muscular. Ostriches can run up to 43 miles per hour. Emus' top speed is 30 miles per hour. Kiwis can run up to 12 miles per hour, very fast for their size. These birds strong legs allow them to be some of the fastest birds on land. The speed of these birds allow them to survive better. They can avoid predators. Emus also use their muscular legs to jump to reach food in trees. All birds in Order Struthioniformes use their strong legs to be very fast runners.

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Ratite fossil cast

65 million years ago

Found in North America

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Lithornithid feathers

50 million years ago

Found in North America

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Lithornithid skull

Relative of flightless birds

50 million years ago

Found in North America

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In the beginning stages kiwi and emu embryos look extremely similar. They have the same shape throughout incubation and at the final stages they still look very similar. Ostrich and kiwi eggs also have the incubation period length, even though the ostrich egg is much larger. They develop at very similar rates even though the birds are much different in size. Emus and ostriches are close in size but kiwis and much smaller. The size difference does not effect the rate of embryo development.

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http://www.theanimalfiles.com/birds/ostrich/ostrich.html

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Ostrich_male_RWD.jpg

https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/54/65454-004-6EFCAEDA.jpg

http://www.theanimalfiles.com/birds/cassowaries_emu/emu.html

http://s3.thingpic.com/images/KM/LkBTGF5MdmtT4P59NkbLotSB.jpeg

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.22520/full

https://movin2newzealand.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/le-kiwi-lanimal-ayant-l_c593uf-le-plus-gros-photo-02.png

http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/emu

http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/kiwi

http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/ostrich

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3271/2669920424_8902d92166.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e8/d7/9d/e8d79dae586128164b7fd5836fd1be01.jpg

http://bivalves.teacherfriendlyguide.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42&Itemid=41

https://www.australiazoo.com.au/our-animals/birds/ratites/emu

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ucw5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA480&lpg=PA480&dq=kiwi+embryology&source=bl&ots=xsasPpehBE&sig=0lmJaY6CqwxLKI5JPTY2K7dUQGg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2rcHl-JrUAhWM4iYKHYz8BvAQ6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=kiwi%20embryology&f=false

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Ornithomimus skull

Relative of ostrich

65 million years ago

Found in Canada

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Calciavis grandei skeleton

close relative to emus, ostriches, and kiwis

30 million years ago

Found in North America