Mullerornis

Mullerornis
Temporal range: Quaternary–Holocene
Restoration of Mullerornis agilis
Extinct
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Aepyornithiformes
Family: Aepyornithidae
Genus: Mullerornis
Species
  • Mullerornis betsilei (Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894)[1]
  • Mullerornis agilis (Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894)[1]
  • Mullerornis rudis (Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894)[1][2]
Synonyms
  • Flacourtia rudis (Andrews, 1894)

Mullerornis is the smaller of the two genera of extinct elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) of Madagascar (the other is Aepyornis).[3] Species include Mullerornis agilis Milne-Edwards and A. Grandidier, 1894, and M. grandis Lamberton, 1934.[4] A bone possibly belonging to Mullerornis has been radiocarbon dated to about 1260 BP,[5] suggesting that the animal was still extant at the end of the first millennium.[6]

The genus is named after Georges Muller, a French explorer who was killed in 1892 by hostile members of the Sakalava people.

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Brands, S. (2008)
  2. Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)
  3. Burney, et al. (1997), p. 763
  4. MacPhee, et al. (1985), table II
  5. Burney, et al. (2004), p. 50
  6. Burney et al. (2004), p. 25

References

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