Re: The duck that ruled the world.

["Timothy Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Finback wrote:

> > Wow!  The implication is that the dromornithids - the largest birds > > 
> that ever lived - were not ratites but giant members of the > Anseriformes 
> (ducks, geese, swans).

> 	This doesn't seem that recent a revelation. In Michael Archer and Suzanne 
> Hand's "The Antipodean Ark" [1987], Pat Rich said:
> "Although _Ilbandornis_ and other mihirungs have been called "giant emus", 
> they are quite distinct from emus and cassowaries and in fact > show closer 
> affinity to the game bird group to wwhich quail and the domestic fowl 
> belong."

Quail and domestic fowl are Galliformes.  Ducks and kin are Anseriformes.  
Until about 15 years ago, the mihirungs (Dromornithidae)were assumed to be 
related to the emu and cassowaries (Casuariformes).

> And this raises a question - aren't kiwis considered to be essentially
> moas, albeit aberrant pygmy forms? Or am I getting my dromornithids mixed
> up with moas?

Moas and kiwis are Dinornithiformes.  Moas (_Dinornis_, _Euryapteryx_, 
_Emeus_, _Pachyornis_, _Megalapteryx_, _Anomalopteryx_) belong to two 
families, Dinornithidae and Emeidae, within the Dinornithiformes.  Kiwis 
(_Apteryx_), which are still with us, belong to a third family, Apterygidae.


Tim


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