Re: Magnificent "Magnificent Mihirungs"

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, Ronald Orenstein wrote:
> I have been off list for a couple of weeks, so I don't know if this is news 
> or not -- but I have just received my copy of "Magnificent Mihirungs: The 
> Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime" by Peter Murray and 
> Pat Vickers Rich, and I must say that if a preliminary inspection is any 
> guide, purchasing this book should be an absolute no-brainer for anyone 
> interested in avian paleontology (or even in dinosaurs).  Certainly there 
> has never been so much information in one place about the Australian 
> Dromornithidae, and if that doesn't interest you the book concludes with an 
> extremely useful gazetteer of the avian skeleton.  I won't go into detail 
> on what the book contains, as I have only begun reading it -- my only real 
> complaint so far is that it does not contain more paintings like the superb 
> portrait on the dust jacket (fortunately, reproduced on the title page as 
> well).  I would have liked a set of full-body restorations of all the 
> dromornithid species, but I will admit that such a thing would be window 
> dressing -- the book is heavily illustrated anyway, and does include quite 
> a number of restorations of featherless birds to show their proportions and 
> how they might have walked or ran.

Picture of cover

http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/books/0-253-34282-1.shtml

A study of the Dromornithids, the gigantic extinct "geese" of Australia.

Over millions of years, Australia's unique biodiversity has produced a
large cabinet of curiosities. Among the weirder members of this group were
the Mihirungs, members of the now extinct family Dromornithidae. Made up
of several genera of flightless birdsamong them one of the very largest
birds that ever livedthe dromornithids ranged from 60-kilogram beasts, 1.5
meters tall, to giants twice that size, weighing nearly half a metric ton.
They were, by orders of magnitude, the largest "geese" that ever lived.
One species was comparable in size to the Elephantbird of Madagascar and
the Giant Moa of New Zealand. This book is the first major study of this
unique and highly diverse group. It aims to present as complete a
synthesis as possible of current information about this fascinating family
of birds.