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

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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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.

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Field Value
Title The dromornithidae, an extinct family of large ground birds endemic to Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/94d6e76b-2b83-46e6-998f-e9915a7c4f09
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "The dromornithidae, an extinct family of large ground birds endemic to Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/the-dromornithidae-an-extinct-family-of-large-ground-birds-endemic-to-australia