Cygnus falconeri explained

Cygnus falconeri is an extinct, very large swan known from Middle Pleistocene-aged deposits from Malta and Sicily. Its dimensions are described as exceeding those of the living mute swan by one-third,^[1] which would give a bill-to-tail length of about (based on 145–160 cm for C. olor^[2]). By comparison to the bones of living swans, it can be estimated that it weighed around and had a wingspan of about .^{[3] [4] [5]} Due to its size, it may have been flightless.^[6] The remains of the species are associated with the Elephas mnaidriensis faunal complex, and became extinct long before the arrival of people to Sicily and Malta.^[7] Its bones are exhibited at Għar Dalam museum in Birżebbuġa, Malta.

Notes and References

1. Book: Heilprin, Angelo . Angelo Heilprin . The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Animals . reprint . Ayer Publishing . 1974 . New York . 333 . 0-405-05742-3 .
2. Book: Snow . D. W. . Perrins . C. M. . 1998 . The Birds of the Western Palearctic . Concise . OUP . 0-19-854099-X. .
3. NORTHCOTE, E. M. (2008). SIZE, FORM AND HABIT OF THE EXTINCT MALTESE SWAN CYGNUS FALCONERI. Ibis, 124(2), 148–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.1982.tb03753.x
4. Watanabe, J., & Matsuoka, H. (2015). Flightless diving duck (Aves, Anatidae) from the Pleistocene of Shiriya, northeast Japan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 35(6), e994745. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2014.994745
5. Watanabe, J. (2017). Quantitative discrimination of flightlessness in fossil Anatidae from skeletal proportions. The Auk, 134(3), 672–695. https://doi.org/10.1642/auk-17-23.1
6. Antoni . Josep . May 30, 2000 . Vertebrate Evolution and Extinction on Western and Central Mediterranean Islands . https://web.archive.org/web/20060418224923/http://www.hucc.hokudai.ac.jp/~a11277/abstract10.htm . 2006-04-18 . Tropics . 10 . 103–123.
7. Bonfiglio . Laura . Mangano . Gabriella . Marra . Antonella Cinzia . Masini . Federico . Pavia . Marco . Petruso . Daria . December 2002 . Pleistocene Calabrian and Sicilian bioprovinces . Geobios . en . 35 . 29–39 . 10.1016/S0016-6995(02)00046-3. 2002Geobi..35...29B . 2318/89144 . free .