Aramidae

Aramidae is a bird family in the order Gruiformes.<ref name="hbwfamily">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is the only living member of this family, although other species are known from the fossil record, such as Papulavis annae from the Eocene of France,<ref name=MourerChauvire>Template:Cite journal</ref> Aramus paludigrus from the Middle Miocene of Colombia<ref name=Rasmussen1997>Template:Cite book</ref> and Badistornis aramus from the Oligocene of South Dakota, USA.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Another Oligocene fossil from Europe, Parvigrus pohli, has been described as a mosaic of the features shared by the limpkins and the cranes. It shares many morphological features with the cranes and limpkins, but also was much smaller than either group, and was more rail-like in its proportions. In the paper describing the fossil, Gerald Mayr suggested that it was similar to the stem species of the Grues (the cranes and limpkins), and that the limpkins evolved massively long bills as a result of the specialisation to feeding on snails. In contrast, the cranes evolved into long-legged forms to walk and probe on open grasslands.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Anisolornis from the Miocene of Argentina, originally described as a phorusrhacid, has been considered to belong within Aramidae, but it has also been allied with Galliformes and Psophiidae.<ref name=MourerChauvire/> Gnotornis aramiellus from the Oligocene of South Dakota was also originally placed in Aramidae but may be a heron.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Two of the oldest supposed members of the family, Aminornis and Loncornis, from early Oligocene deposits in Argentina, are no longer thought to belong to Aramidae. Loncornis seems to be an misidentified undiagnostic mammal bone,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Aminornis was reassigned to the Anseriformes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>