A number of turkeys have been described from fossils.

The Meleagridinae are known

from the Early Miocene (c. 23 mya) onwards, with the extinct genera Rhegminornis (Early
Miocene of Bell, U.S.) and Proagriocharis (Kimball Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lime
Creek, U.S.). The former is probably a basal turkey, the other a more contemporary bird
not very similar to known turkeys; both were much smaller birds. A turkey fossil not
assignable to genus but similar to Meleagris is known from the Late Miocene
of Westmoreland County, Virginia.[8] In the modern genus Meleagris, a considerable
number of species have been described, as turkey fossils are robust and fairly often
found, and turkeys show great variation among individuals. Many of these supposed
fossilized species are now considered junior synonyms. One, the well-
documented California turkey Meleagris californica,[26] became extinct recently enough
to have been hunted by early human settlers.[27] It has been suggested that its demise
was due to the combined pressures of human hunting and climate change at the end of
the last glacial period.[28]
The Oligocene fossil Meleagris antiquus was first described by Othniel Charles Marsh in
1871. It has since been reassigned to the genus Paracrax, first interpreted as a cracid,
then soon after as a bathornithid Cariamiformes.