Emuarius
Encyclopedia
Emuarius is an extinct genus
of flightless bird
from Australia
that lived during the early Miocene
and late Oligocene
. It is one of two known genera of emu
. There are two known species in the genus, Emuarius gidju and Emuarius guljaruba. The birds in this genus are known as emuwaries. Some Australian fossils initially believed to be from emus were recognized to represent a distinct genus, Emuarius[3], which had a cassowary-like skull and femur and an emu-like lower leg and foot.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of flightless bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that lived during the early Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
and late Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
. It is one of two known genera of emu
Emu
The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...
. There are two known species in the genus, Emuarius gidju and Emuarius guljaruba. The birds in this genus are known as emuwaries. Some Australian fossils initially believed to be from emus were recognized to represent a distinct genus, Emuarius[3], which had a cassowary-like skull and femur and an emu-like lower leg and foot.