#dromornithidae

[sticksandsharks]

little cenozoic guys

(hyaenodon, langstonia, smilodon, dromornithidae, stegotetrabelodon, glyptodon, moropus)

[troythecatfish]

"Demon Ducks" huh? Well just imagine how much Peking Duck you could make from these big boys 😋

[tine5]

Demon duck (Dromornithidae)

[harpagornis]

"Goose like"

So a new study has examined the first complete Genyornis skull. It is truly a mastery of phylogenetics, firmly placing Dromornithidae as indeed true waterfowl.

However one of the conclusions of the study is a bit sus. It claims that Genyornis, and by proxy other dromornithids, fed primarily on aquatic plants. This is based on two main factors: small gastroliths indicating softer plant diet and a beak superficially similar to that of a goose. Geese, however, are notoriously the most terrestrial of living waterfowl, having a diet dominated by grass and only a small percentage of aquatic plants. Some like the Cape Barren Goose (Cereopsis novaehollandiae) and the Nene (Branta sandvicensis) even have reduced webbing on the feet.

Dromornithids are known to have nail-like claws, a point even pointed out in the new paper. This is consistent with a more terrestrial ecology for these birds. I find it more plausible that they were feeding on soft foliage rather than quatic plants, which is still concurrent with the study's conclusion of their demise as Australia became more arid, since fewer soft leaved trees remained.

Other dromornithids like Dromornis itself also have a very distinct beak shape. I find comparisions between the dromornithid taxa and potential dietary habits need to be made before jumping to conclusions.

[dendroica]

Researcher discovers ancestor of biggest bird ever

A newly discovered distant relative of the duck has just been hailed as an ancestor of the biggest bird the world has ever known by a group of Australian palaeontologists.

They say Dromornis murrayi, which at 250kg was originally the 'baby' of the ancient 'Mihirung' family of Dromornis giant birds, eventually evolved into the world's biggest bird, D. stirtoni, before going extinct.

"It lived in the late Oligocene – early Miocene, and was the first member of the lineage of Dromornis species," says Dr Trevor Worthy, from Flinders University in South Australia, who led the study.

"Originally, it was the smallest, at a pretty hefty 250 kg, but by eight million years ago it had evolved into D. stirtoni, which averaged a whopping 450 kg – with some individuals reaching 650 kg – the largest birds the world has known."

Dr Worthy's team of palaeontologists, from Finders University and University of New South Wales, revealed the news in a study just published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

"Mihirungs were giant flightless birds only found in Australia and are known only from fossils," said Dr Worthy. "The largest stood two metres high at its back and reached well over three metres at the head.

"They survived until the Pleistocene period when Genyornis newtoni, the last species, died out, probably about 50,000 years ago."

Seven species in four genera of the bird are generally recognised, with the last five named in 1979 by Patricia Vickers Rich, now a Professor at Monash University.

Now, some 37 years later, the naming of the new, and largest, species, Dromornis murrayi, after Peter Murray, former Northern Territory Museum curator and co-author of the book Magnificent Mihirungs, brings the total number of mihirungs known to eight.

[di-kot-o-me]

HORSE-SIZED DUCKS USED TO ROAM AUSTRALIA 50,000 YEARS AGO.

[notadinosaurr]

Just when you thought Australia couldn't get any scarier they come along with this thing. Similar in size to the South American Terror birds, members of the  Dromornithidae family were big and possibly carnivorous. Convergent evolution is a wonderful thing. These guys aren't rattites(like emu and ostrich)  but are actually more closely related to geese and ducks. This particular species  is known as the  Dromornis stirtoni was probably the biggest bird that ever lived. They grew to around 3 meters(10 feet tall) and weighed more than New Zealand's Moa. These guys are believed to have been able to run fairly quickly, and nested in sand dunes. Their fossils, found in Alcoota Station in the Northern Territory of Australia, are as recent as 30,000 years ago and as ancient as 15 mya.