Re: New Zealand's Giant Eagle Showed Rapid Size Gain

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Christopher Taylor wrote:

> It has also been suggested that the
> flightless and deeply weird adzebill (_Aptornis_) may have been a predator.
> [snip] The adzebill is a trickier case - like
> many an omnivorous bird (such as the ostrich), I guess it may have worked
> on a 'swallow first, decide if it was edible later' basis.

_Aptornis_ is deeply weird for other reasons.  Like many large
island-dwelling birds, the adzebill has proven difficult to pin down
phylogenetically.  Livezey (1998) put it in the Gruiformes, close to the
kagu (_Rhynochetos_), noting that _Aptornis_ was extremely autapomorphic.
Earlier, Weber and Hesse (1995) posited that it was close to the
Galloanserae.

(Thanks, Chris, for some interesting stuff on NZ birds.)