Re: New Zealand's Giant Eagle Showed Rapid Size Gain

[a23813@ualg.pt]

Quoting Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>:

> Christopher Taylor wrote:

> _Aptornis_ is deeply weird for other reasons.  Like many large
> island-dwelling birds, the adzebill has proven difficult to pin down
> phylogenetically.  Livezey (1998) put it in the Gruiformes, close to the
> kagu (_Rhynochetos_) [...]

It may be more a case of convergence but I couldn't help notice the outward 
similarity between the weka* and the illustrations of the Adzebill**. 
I think it would be more reasonable to assume that _Aptornis_ would be a giant 
rail related to _Gallirallus_ but then again this is just some educated 
guessing based on my knowledge.

Just my two cents,
Renato Santos

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weka
  http://www.doc.govt.nz/images/national/weka.jpg
  http://danny.oz.au/travel/new-zealand/p/1289c-weka.jpg
** http://www.kcc.org.nz/birds/extinct/_stampadzebill.jpg 
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