 The family, Palaelodidae, is the sister taxon of modern flamingos, and the order Phoenicopteriformes, to which both belong, probably evolved from a grebe-like ancestor.It is easy to see how a bird like "Palaelodus" represents an intermediate form between a diving, fish-eating grebe and a wading, invertebrate-filtering flamingo.This does not mean that the palaelodids are the ancestors of the flamingos.