Dromornis murrayi

Dromornis is a genus of large to enormous prehistoric birds native to Australia during the Oligocene to Pliocene epochs. The species were flightless, possessing greatly reduced wing structures but with large legs, similar to the modern ostrich or emu. They were likely to have been predominantly, if not exclusively, herbivorous browsers. The male of the largest species, Dromornis stirtoni, is a contender for the tallest and heaviest bird, and possibly exhibited aggressive territorial behaviour. They belong to the family Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds known as mihirungs.

Dromornis murrayi

Kevmin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DromornisPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Galloanserae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Galloanserae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 4.3 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 23.04 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.8 Mya22.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Dromornis murrayi on record, most of them in the Oligocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Carl Creek Limestone — 19.08°S, 138.72°E

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The named rock units Dromornis murrayi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dromornis murrayi and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Dromornis murrayi and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Dromornis murrayi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dromornis murrayi

Credit
Kevmin
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dromornis murrayi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDromornis through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Worthy et al. 2016