Genyornis

Genyornis is an extinct genus of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 40-50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. It is the last known member of the extinct flightless bird family Dromornithidae, which had been part of the fauna of the Australian continent for over 30 million years. They are not closely related to ratites such as emus, and are instead thought to be a gigantic type of fowl, likely an early diverging group within the Anseriformes, which contains ducks and geese. Genyornis and many other Australian megafauna became extinct in Australia as part of the Late Pleistocene extinction event, coinciding with the arrival of humans. Evidence has been found for human consumption of Genyornis eggs, making it one of the few species of Australian megafauna for which evidence of human interaction is known.

Genyornis

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
DromornithidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Galloanserae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Galloanserae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 2.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.08 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Genyornis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

3 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.

Genyornis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Genyornis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

36 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Genyornis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences 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 Genyornis

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Genyornis 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 itDromornithidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stirling and Zietz 1896