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Flightless birds are birds that cannot fly, as they have, through evolution, lost the ability to. [1] There are over 60 extant species, [2] including the well-known ratites (ostriches, emus, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwis) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7
Gastornis is an extinct genus of large, flightless birds that lived during the mid-Paleocene to mid-Eocene epochs of the Paleogene period. Most fossils have been found in Europe, and some species typically referred to the genus are known from North America and Asia.
A metre-high flightless bird found on Mauritius. Its forest habitat was destroyed when Dutch settlers moved to the island and the dodo's nests and eggs were destroyed by the pigs, cats and monkeys that the Dutch brought with them. The last specimen was killed in 1681, only 80 years after the arrival of the new predators.
Here's a riddle: how did an order of flightless birds manage to spread to places they would have had to fly to? Rheas live in South America, cassowaries and emus in Australia, kiwis in New Zealand ...
The basal metabolic rate of flighted species is much higher than that of flightless terrestrial birds. [34] But energetic efficiency can only help explain the loss of flight when the benefits of flying are not critical to survival. Research on flightless rails indicates the flightless condition evolved in the absence of predators. [35]
The following table is a list of the heaviest extant bird species based on maximum reported or reliable mass, with the average weight is also given for comparison. These species are almost all flightless, having denser bones and heavier bodies. Flightless birds comprise less than 1% of all extant bird species.
Fictional flightless birds (5 C, 10 P) P. Penguins (4 C, 33 P) R. Ratites (10 C, 49 P) S. Struthioniformes (1 C, 6 P) Pages in category "Flightless birds"
Cariamiformes (or Cariamae) is an order of primarily flightless birds that has existed for over 50 million years. The group includes the family Cariamidae (seriemas) and the extinct families such as Phorusrhacidae, Bathornithidae, Idiornithidae and Ameghinornithidae.