The Middle Eastern Ostrich or Arabian Ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus) is an extinct subspecies of the ostrich which once lived on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Near East. Its range seems to have been continuous in prehistoric times, but with the drying-up of the Arabian Peninsula, it disappeared from the inhospitable areas of the Arabian Desert such as the Rub'al-Khali. In historic times, there seems to have been two separate subpopulations: a smaller one in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula and a larger one in the area where today the borders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Syria meet. At or near the Sinai Peninsula and Israel, it probably mated with the North African subspecies called Camelus, which looked much like the Arabian Ostrich. The only certain way to distinguish Camelus from Syricauswas the different sizes of the tarsus, (390-465 mm long on the Syriacus and 450-530 mm on the Camelus) and the overall smaller size of the of Syricaus. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 509 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1302 pixel, file size: 257 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, 776 - 869) was a famous Arab scholar probably of Abyssinian descent. ... Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, 776 - 869) was a famous Arab scholar probably of Abyssinian descent. ... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ... Image File history File links Status_none_EX.svg‎ Graphic diagram for the IUCN Red List categories. ... The Dodo, shown here in a 1651 illustration by Jan Savery, is an often-cited[1] example of modern extinction. ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... who cares though]] island species, have also lost the ability to fly. ... Families Struthionidae Casuariidae Dinornithidae Apterygidae Rheidae A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanian origin, most of them now extinct. ... Binomial name Struthio camelus Linnaeus, 1758 The Ostrich (Struthio camelus, Greek sparrow camel) is the largest living bird, reaching a height of up to 2. ... Binomial name Struthio camelus Linnaeus, 1758 The Ostrich (Struthio camelus, Greek sparrow camel) is the largest living bird, reaching a height of up to 2. ... Binomial name Carolus Linnaeus, 1758 The present-day distribution of Ostriches. ... Trinomial nomenclature is a taxonomic naming system that extends the standard system of binomial nomenclature by adding a third taxon. ... Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (February 8, 1868 – August 27, 1937) was a British banker and zoologist from the international Rothschild financial dynasty. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... This article is about the zoological term. ... Binomial name Carolus Linnaeus, 1758 The present-day distribution of Ostriches. ... The Arabian Peninsula Emirets towers in United Arab Emirates; the eastern part of Arabian Penisula The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia consisting mainly of desert. ... The Near East is a term commonly used by archaeologists, geographers and historians, less commonly by journalists and commentators, to refer to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (modern Israel/Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon), Georgia, Armenia, and... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Location of the empty quarter in Arabia Sand dunes in the Empty Quarter The Empty Quarter (Arabic: Rub al Khali الربع الخالي), is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates... Sinai Peninsula, Gulf of Suez (west), Gulf of Aqaba (east) from Space Shuttle STS-40 For other uses of the word Sinai, please see: Sinai (disambiguation). ...

The Arabian Ostrich has long had a significant place in the culture of the region. An adult with 11 offspring is featured on the famous prehistoric "Graffiti Rock I" near Riyadh. In Mesopotamia, it was used as a sacrificial animal and featured in artwork, painted on cups and other objects made from ostrich eggs, and were traded as far as Etruria during the Neo-Assyrian period. Riyadh (Arabic: ‎ ar-Riyāḍ) is the capital of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, located in Ar Riyad Province in the Najd region. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, and parts of eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwest Iran. ... A sheep is led to the altar, 6th century BC Corinthian fresco. ... The area covered by the Etruscan civilzation. ... An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu. ...

The Jewish view of this bird was less favorable. The fact that the female ostrich may leave the nest unattended (because the eggs are too thick-shelled to be easily broken open by predators) is the reason why the bird was chastized as a bad parent in the Book of Job (Job 39:13-18 ^[1]) and the Book of Lamentations (Lamentations 4:3). The Arabian Ostrich is possibly^[2] among the birds forbidden to Jews as unclean under the kashrut in Leviticus (Leviticus 11:16), though the Israelites would just as likely have known the birds from the North African subspecies which was extant in the Nile Valley of Egypt at that time. For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... The Book of Job (איוב) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. ... The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew מגילת איכה) is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... Look up kosher in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, also the third book in the Torah (five books of Moses). ... An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28 The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Bible. ... ...

In Roman times, there was a demand for ostriches to use in venatio games or cooking. These birds usually would have come from the North African subspecies rather than from the Arabian one, as the latter was only found in the unruly frontier regions of the Roman Empire, although it is to be noted that much later, the plumes of the Arabian ostrich were considered superior material for millinery compared to those of the North African subspecies. Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... Another form of entertainment in Roman amphitheaters involved the hunting and slaying of wild animals, call the venatio, or hunt. ... Millinery is womens hats and other articles sold by a milliner, or the profession or business of designing, making, or selling hats for women. ...

After the rise of Islam, the Arabian Ostrich came to represent wealth and elegance; ostrich hunting became a popular pastime for the rich and noble (if slaughtered properly, ostrich meat is halaal to Muslims) and eggs, feathers and leather were extensively used in handicraft. Arabian Ostrich products as well as live birds were exported as far as China. A Tang Dynasty source states that the "camel bird" inhabiting Arabia is For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... Halaal (حلال, halāl, halal) is an Islamic Arabic term meaning permissible. In English it is most frequently used to refer to food that is permissible according to Islamic law. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... China under the Tang Dynasty (yellow) and its sphere of influence Capital Changan (618–904) Luoyang (904-907) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy Emperor  - 618-626 Emperor Gaozu  - 684, 705-710 Emperor Zhongzong  - 684, 710-712 Emperor Ruizong  - 904-907 Emperor Ai History  - Li Yuan...

"four chi and more in height, its feet resembling those of a camel; its neck is very strong, and men are able to ride on its back...". The Chinese units (Chinese: 市制; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally market system) are the customary and traditional units of measure used in China. ...

The Arabian Ostrich was also discussed in Mesopotamian scholarly writings from the time of the Baghdad Caliphate, such as Zakariya al-Qazwini's cosmography 'Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat, the Kitab al-Hayawan ("Book of Animals") of Al-Jahiz, or Ibn al-Manzur's dictionary Lisan al-Arab. Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfah), is the Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. ... Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini ( died 1283 CE), was a Persian physician from Qazvin. ... Cosmography is the science that maps the general features of the universe; describes both heaven and earth (but without encroaching on geography or astronomy) A representation of the earth or the heavens. ... Ajaib al-makhluqat wa-gharaib al-mawjudat (English translation: Marvels of things created and miraculous aspects of things existing) is an important work of cosmography by Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu Yahya al-Qazwini who was born in Qazwin year 600 (AH)/1203. ... Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, 776 - 869) was a famous Arab scholar probably of Abyssinian descent. ... Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, 776 - 869) was a famous Arab scholar probably of Abyssinian descent. ...

Extinction

The widespread introduction of firearms and, later, motor vehicles marked the start of the decline towards extinction of this subspecies. Earlier, hunting with bow, arrows and dogs had allowed most animals of a group to escape, but rifles enabled the hunters to shoot down many individuals for the sheer fun of it. By the early 20th century, the Arabian Ostrich had become rare. Its main stronghold was the northern Nefud northwards to the Syrian Desert, between latitudes 34°N and 25°N and longitude 38°E eastwards to the Euphrates valley, and it was most plentiful in Al Jawf Province, where it associated with herds of the Saudi Gazelle and the Arabian Oryx, both also extinct or very rare, respectively, nowadays. Some of the last sightings include an individual east of the Tall al-Rasatin at the Jordanian-Iraqi border in 1928, a bird shot and eaten by pipeline workers in the area of Jubail in the early 1940s (some sources specifically state 1941), two apocryphal records of birds suffering the same fate in 1948, and a dying individual found in the upper Wadi el-Hasa north of Petra in 1966. Remains of old eggs are still found in the former range of the southern subpopulation, which disappeared between the 1900s and the 1920s, probably mainly because of increasing aridity. Some eggshell fragments were collected by St. John Philby from Mahadir Summan, Arabia around 1931.^[3] Following analyses of mtDNA control region haplotypes that confirmed the close relationship of the Arabian and the North African subspecies (Robinson & Matthee 1999), a reintroduction project using S. c. camelus was set up in Saudi Arabia (Seddon & Soorae 1999).Today the subspecies "S. c. molybdophanes" is re-introduced from captivity to the open areas of the Negev in Israel were the Arabian Ostrich lived before. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... The Nefud or An-Nafud is a desert area in the northern part of the Arabian peninsula, occupying a great oval depression; 180 mi (290 km) long and 140 mi (225 km) wide. ... Latitude,usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi, , gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. ... Longitude is the east-west geographic coordinate measurement most commonly utilized in cartography and global navigation. ... Surfer Rosa The Euphrates (IPA: /juːˈfreɪtiːz/; Greek: EuphrátÄ“s; Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu; Hebrew: פְּרָת PÄ•rāth; Syriac: Prâth; Arabic: الفرات Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat; Kurdish: فرهات, Firhat, Ferhat, Azeri: FÉ™rat) is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (the other... Categories: Stub | Provinces of Saudi Arabia ... The Saudi Gazelle, or is a species of gazelle. ... Binomial name Pallas, 1766 The Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) is a bovid and the smallest member of Oryx genus, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian peninsula. ... Location of Jubail, Saudi Arabia. ... Petra (from petra, rock in Greek; Arabic: البتراء, Al-Butrā) is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. ... a term used to define dryness of an environment, [ie, an organic structure (eg plant or animal) will have more of its moisture removed more quickly when in an environment of high aridity. ... Harry St. ... Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is DNA which is not located in the nucleus of the cell but in the mitochondria. ... A haplotype is the genetic constitution of an individual chromosome. ... Reintroduction is the deliberate release of animals from captivity into the wild. ... Rock face in the Negev Desert near Beersheba on the way to Eilat. ...

References

• Aharoni, I. (1938): On Some Animals Mentioned in the Bible. Osiris 5: 461-478. First page image

• Rothschild, Walter (1919): Description of a new subspecies of Ostrich from Syria. Bull. Brit. Ornithol. Club 39: 81-83.

• Robinson, Terence J. & Matthee, Conrad A. (1999): Molecular genetic relationships of the extinct ostrich, Struthio camelus syriacus: consequences for ostrich introductions into Saudi Arabia. Animal Conservation 2(3): 165-171. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-1795.1999.tb00062.x (HTML abstract)

• Seddon, Philip J. & Soorae, Pritpal S. (1999): Guidelines for Subspecific Substitutions in Wildlife Restoration Projects. Conserv. Biol. 13(1): 177-184. DOI:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.97414.x (HTML abstract)

The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club (ISSN 0007-1595) is an ornithological journal published by the British Ornithologists Club. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Although with a nod to the beauty of the bird's plumes - chenaf r'naim, "the charming wing"
2. ^ The correct identification of the בַּת הַיַּעֲנָה (ba't haYa'anah), "daughter of the desert", as ostrich is not certain; it may be the Pharaoh Eagle Owl (Aharoni 1938 and compare NIV Leviticus 11:16).
3. ^ Philby, St. John (1933) The Empty Quarter. Constable and Co. scanned book