The dromornithidae, an extinct family of large ground birds endemic to Australia

Many of Australia's birds are unique to this continent, but none are more impressive than a group of giant ground birds, the Dromornithidae, one member of which may have

exceeded in volume and weight any bird that has ever trod the surface of the earth. Although first discovered in the early 19th century, only two genera (Genyornis and Dromornis), both monotypic, had been recognized when work beginning in the 1950's in central Australia brought to light at least six new forms including three new genera (Barawertornis,

Bullockornis, and Ilbandornis), described for the first time in this paper. Based almost entirely on post-cranial material, the Dromornithidae appear to be most closely related

to the Casuariidae, the only other Australian ratite group, but before a satisfactory higher taxonomic allocation can be made, good cranial material is needed. Unfortunately, the maximum age of known dromornithid fossils is about 15-20 million years, and from that first record to the last in the late Pleistocene, only minor evolutionary changes are known to have occurred, namely: reduction of the forelimb, reduction of the medial digit of the foot, and development of hoof-like ungual phalanges on the foot. A much more fascinating evolutionary picture of this diverse group awaits future palaeontological discoveries.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
1979-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/40

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics

 Canberra
Author

Rich, P.V.

 1
Name

Bulletin

Issue identification

184

ISBN

0642037345

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

Corp
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • GA Publication

  • Bulletin

Keywords

  • AU

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Download the Bulletin (pdf)

Download the Bulletin (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-7f9d-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

Legacy AGSO BMR Bulletins

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/40

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-7f9d-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:08:50
Date info (Creation)
1999-08-03T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W



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