ratite

1. not comparablePertaining to running, flightless birds with no keels on their sternums (as opposed to carinate).First known use 19th c.

   Against what was probably the general expectation, it became undeniable that New Zealand was indeed the home of huge ratite birds.

   2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford, page 37

   Synonyms: ratitate

plural ratites

1. A member of a diverse group of mostly large, running, flightless birds that lack keels on their sternums, mostly extinct such as the elephant bird and the moa, but including the extant cassowaries, emu, kiwi, ostrich, and rhea; formerly grouped together in the order Struthioniformes, and including the Paleognathae except the tinamous.