Chinese pottery and petroglyphs. Distribution and habitat Today, ostriches are only found natively in the wild in Africa, where they occur in a range of open arid and semi-arid habitats such as savannas and the Sahel, both north and south of the equatorial forest zone. The Somali ostrich occurs in the Horn of Africa, having evolved isolated from the common ostrich by the geographic barrier of the East African Rift. In some areas, the common ostrich's Masai subspecies occurs alongside the Somali ostrich, but they are kept from interbreeding by behavioral and ecological differences. The Arabian ostriches in Asia Minor and Arabia were hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th century, and in Israel attempts to introduce North African ostriches to fill their ecological role have failed. Escaped common ostriches in Australia have established feral populations. Species In 2008, S. linxiaensis was transferred to the genus Orientornis. Three additional species, S. pannonicus, S. dmanisensis, and S. transcaucasicus, were transferred to the genus Pachystruthio in 2019. Several additional fossil forms are ichnotaxa (that is, classified according to the organism's trace fossils such as footprints rather than its body) and their association with those described from distinctive bones is contentious and in need of revision pending more good material. The species are: Prehistoric †Struthio barbarus Arambourg 1979 †Struthio brachydactylus Burchak-Abramovich 1939 (Pliocene of Ukraine) †Struthio chersonensis (Brandt 1873) Lambrecht 1921 (Pliocene of SE Europe to WC Asia) – oospecies †Struthio coppensi Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1996 (Early Miocene of Elizabethfeld, Namibia) †Struthio daberasensis Pickford, Senut & Dauphin 1995 (Early – Middle Pliocene of Namibia) – oospecies †Struthio kakesiensis Harrison & Msuya 2005 (Early Pliocene of Laetoli, Tanzania) – oospecies †Struthio karingarabensis Senut, Dauphin & Pickford 1998 (Late Miocene – Early Pliocene of SW and CE Africa) – oospecies(?) †Struthio oldawayi Lowe 1933 (Late Pleistocene of Tanzania) – probably subspecies of S. camelus †Struthio orlovi Kuročkin & Lungo 1970 (Late Miocene of Moldavia) †Struthio wimani Lowe 1931 (Early Pliocene of China and Mongolia) Late Pleistocene Holocene †Struthio anderssoni Lowe 1931, East Asian ostrich (Late Pleistocene of China to Mongolia) †Struthio asiaticus Brodkorb 1863, Asian ostrich (Early Pliocene – Early Holocene of Central Asia to China? and Morocco) Struthio camelus, common ostrich Struthio camelus camelus, North African ostrich Struthio camelus massaicus, Masai ostrich Struthio camelus australis, South African ostrich †Struthio camelus syriacus, Arabian ostrich Struthio molybdophanes, Somali ostrich Citations General references Extant Miocene