Garganornis
Sign in to saveGarganornis (meaning "Gargano bird") is an extinct genus of enormous flightless anatid waterfowl from the Late Miocene of Gargano, Italy. The genus contains one species, G. ballmanni, named by Meijer in 2014. Its enormous size is thought to have been an adaptation to living in exposed, open areas with no terrestrial predators, and as a deterrent to the indigenous aerial predators like the eagle Garganoaetus and the giant barn owl Tyto gigantea.
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Description
- Discovery and naming
- Classification
- Paleoecology
- References
Garganornis (meaning "Gargano bird") is an extinct genus of enormous flightless anatid waterfowl from the Late Miocene of Gargano, Italy. The genus contains one species, G. ballmanni, named by Meijer in 2014. Its enormous size is thought to have been an adaptation to living in exposed, open areas with no terrestrial predators, and as a deterrent to the indigenous aerial predators like the eagle Garganoaetus and the giant barn owl Tyto gigantea.
==Description== thumb|left|Life reconstruction of Garganornis The tibiotarsus of Garganornis is approximately 30% larger than that of the living mute swan in circumference. Based on comparisons with the latter, it has been estimated that Garganornis had a weight in the range of , larger than any living anatid. This suggests that it was likely flightless.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Garganornis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.