Sylviornis neocaledoniae

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Sylviornis neocaledoniae
Reconstruction drawing

Reconstruction drawing

Systematics
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Chicken birds (Galliformes)
Family : Sylviornithidae
Genre : Sylviornis
Type : Sylviornis neocaledoniae
Scientific name of the  family
Sylviornithidae
Mourer-Chauviré & Balouet , 2005
Scientific name of the  genus
Sylviornis
Poplin , 1980
Scientific name of the  species
Sylviornis neocaledoniae
Poplin, 1980

Sylviornis neocaledoniae ( Kanakisch : Du ) was a large, flightless bird , which isclose tothe big foot fowl ( Megapodiidae ). Like another species of big foot fowl, it lived on New Caledonia and the nearby Île des Pins , at least until about 3000 years ago when the first humans first settled there. Its remains were found in the debris from human settlement.

Sylviornis neocaledoniae was initially mistaken for a ratite until a more complete collection of bones suggested it was a large footed hen. However, this has also been questioned, as it differs significantly from other large foot fowl. Sylviornis is now run as a separate family, Sylviornithidae.

He was about 1.2 to 1.6 meters tall and weighed about 40 kilograms.

It is believed that Sylviornis built the more than 400 10 to 50 meters wide and 50 to 80 centimeters high mounds of earth, known in New Caledonia as "tumuli", in order to incubate his eggs. The material was collected in the immediate vicinity and consists of small stones and earth and a kind of cement.

credentials

  1. ↑ Ross Piper: Extinct Animals: An Encyclopedia of Species that Have Disappeared during Human History. Greenwood, 2009, ISBN 978-031-334-987-4 : pp. 65-68
  2. ↑ a b c d D. W. Steadman : The biogeography and extinction of megapodes in Oceania. In: Dekker et al .: Proceedings Third International Megapode Symposium. Zool. Verh. Leiden 327 (1999)
  3. ↑ TH Worthy : The fossil megapodes (Aves: Megapodiidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and two new species. Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 30, Number 4, December 2000: pp. 337-364
  4. ↑ Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile & Balouet, JC (2005): Description of the skull of the genus Sylviornis Poplin, 1980 (Aves, Galliformes, Sylviornithidae new family), a giant extinct bird from the Holocene of New Caledonia. In: Alcover, JA & Bover, P. (eds.): Proceedings of the International Symposium "Insular Vertebrate Evolution: the Palaeontological Approach" . Monographs de la Societat d'Història Natural de les Balears 12 : 205-118
  5. ^ Mourer-Chauvire, Cecile, et Poplin, François; Le Mystere des Tumulus de Nouvelle-Caledonie La Recherche, 16:76 , September 1985. Cr. C. Mauge

literature