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Post by Melanie on Oct 15, 2005 23:32:58 GMT
Holocene extinction or not?
According to Wikipedia it became extinct about 9,000 years BC.
A gigantic swan, Cygnus falconeri (apparently flightless), is known from the Zebbug cave, Malta.
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Post by Peter on Oct 15, 2005 23:59:48 GMT
I cannot find many on this species. Many say it lived in the pleistocene, but not that it became extinct in that epoch. So maybe it survived just into the Holocene???
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Post by Melanie on Oct 16, 2005 0:13:08 GMT
I've found a little information about the Zebbug Cave. Many fossil deposits which were found in this cave were from Pleistocene.
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david
Full Member
Posts: 419
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Post by david on Oct 17, 2005 11:03:46 GMT
Was it's extinction human caused?
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Post by Melanie on Oct 17, 2005 11:38:52 GMT
Sorry, but there is too less information on the Internet to answer this question.
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Post by Melanie on Oct 17, 2005 11:54:15 GMT
I think it was probably not human caused. According to Wikipedia the first evidence of humans in Malta dated back around 5200 years BC.
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Post by Bucardo on Oct 21, 2005 11:39:47 GMT
I had heard that Cygnus falconeri also lived in Sicily. This is a painting showing a group of giant swans near a sicilian dwarf elephant ( Palaeoloxodon falconeri):  |
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Post by Melanie on Oct 21, 2005 12:54:57 GMT
Well i'm not sure whether it is really the same species. Malta and Sicily were already separated islands 10,000 years ago but I could imagine that both species could have had the same ancestor.
A nice pic by the way.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2005 17:06:59 GMT
Hi !
As far as I know that bird is not very well known, it could also have been a goose.
Anyway, if this bird was flightless than it would be very possible that people wipped it out, why not ? (Without leaving bones etc. ...)
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Post by another specialist on Oct 21, 2005 23:25:25 GMT
from what i can see its more pleistocene than Holocene
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 25, 2006 17:24:24 GMT
I've learned that cygnus falconeri was a huge flightless swan,one-fourth larger than cynus olor and had a wingspan of 9 feet. Is this true? Can anyone tell me more about the size of this bird?
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Post by dysmorodrepanis on May 27, 2006 3:56:01 GMT
NORTHCOTE, E.M. (1982). Size, form and habit of the extinct Maltese swan Cygnus falconeri. Ibis, 124: 148-158.
might shed some light on this.
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Post by dysmorodrepanis on May 27, 2006 4:27:45 GMT
Well i'm not sure whether it is really the same species. Malta and Sicily were already separated islands 10,000 years ago but I could imagine that both species could have had the same ancestor. Malta and Sicily were variously joined and separated during the Quaternary - basically, during ice ages they were one island, and during warm ages they were separate. They are called "Siculo-Maltese archipelago" by paleontologists to reflect this. Indeed, Cygnus falconeri has also been found on Sicily as part of the "Elephas mnaidriensis" fauna. www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/497_501.pdfThere was another swan endemic to Sicily and Malta: Cygnus equitum. I think it was very small. It was (somewhat confusingly) found in association with the dwarf elephant Elephas falconeri. So Falconer's Dwarf Elephat was (at least on Sicily) not associated with Falconer's Giant Swan. |
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 27, 2006 15:40:24 GMT
Can I find this article online or can I order it?
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Post by dysmorodrepanis on May 31, 2006 4:31:47 GMT
You might want to try a university or museum delivery service, or if you have university libraries in your vicinity, you might want to check out whether they can get you the hardcopy and you copy it yourself. If you don't want the volume on loan, it might noch cost you anything. The paper is not online AFAIK.
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 31, 2006 19:21:59 GMT
thanks dysmorodrepanis
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Post by cryptodude100 on Jun 5, 2006 12:08:26 GMT
A gigantic swan, one third to one-fourth larger than Cynus olor. Cygnus falconeri was a huge swan with a 9-foot wingspan.
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Post by cryptodude100 on Jan 11, 2007 16:19:08 GMT
What is the estimated size for Cygnus falconeri? Anyone know? I know it was taller than Elephas falconeri which stands 3 feet at the shoulder.
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Post by cryptodude100 on Jan 12, 2007 18:21:14 GMT
Anyone know?
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Post by another specialist on Jul 25, 2008 9:24:07 GMT
Cygnus falconeri, the Giant Swan, was a very large Siculo-Maltese swan known from the Middle Pleistocene. Its dimensions are described as exceeding those of the living Mute Swan by one-third,[2] which would give a bill-to-tail length of about 190–210 cm (based on 145–160 cm for C. olor[3]). It would have been taller, though not heavier, than the region's dwarf elephants. Due to its size, it may have been flightless.[4] It became extinct before the increase in human activity in the region (see Holocene extinction event), so its disappearance is thought to have resulted from extreme climate fluctuations or the arrival of superior predators and competitors.[5] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_swan |
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