Genyornis
Sign in to saveGenyornis is an extinct genus of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 40-50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. It is the last known member of the extinct flightless bird family Dromornithidae which had been part of the fauna of the Australian continent for over 30 million years. They are not closely related to ratites such as emus, and they are thought to be a gigantic type of fowl, likely an early diverging group within the Anseriformes, which contains ducks and geese. Genyornis. and many other Australian
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 263 inbound references to Genyornis, and connects out to Alvarezsauridae, Dromornis and Galloanserae.
Vinony files it under Dromornithidae, Extinct flightless birds and Fossil taxa described in 1896.
Vinony links it to 20 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Dromornithidae
- Image
- Genyornis BW.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- taxon name
- Genyornis
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Genyornis
- time period
- Late Pleistocene
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy and evolution
- History of discovery
- Evolution
- Description
- Distribution
- Extinction
- References
Genyornis is an extinct genus of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 40-50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. It is the last known member of the extinct flightless bird family Dromornithidae which had been part of the fauna of the Australian continent for over 30 million years. They are not closely related to ratites such as emus, and they are thought to be a gigantic type of fowl, likely an early diverging group within the Anseriformes, which contains ducks and geese. Genyornis. and many other Australian megafauna became extinct in Australia as part of the Late Pleistocene extinction event, coinciding with the arrival of humans. Evidence has been found for human consumption of Genyornis eggs, making it one of the few species of Australian megafauna for which evidence of human interaction is known.
== Taxonomy and evolution ==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Genyornis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.