Birds evolved a long, long time ago on this earth. Some of them have remained more like dinosaurs or lizards with feathers than birds, or else somewhere in between. These are the flightless birds or ratites. But the ratite group doesn’t include the penguins who don’t run as much as swim.

These flightless birds do have wings but they are only used to flap around some to cool off or to splash a little water. The muscles in the wings are not strong enough to support flying. They do have strong legs and bones for running quickly. They live only in the Southern Hemisphere.