Cygnus falconeri (lat.) - a species of fossil birds from the genus swans of the duck family [2] . The species name is given in honor of the Scottish botanist, paleontologist and geologist Hugh Falconer (1808-1865).
| † Cygnus falconeri |
| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
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| International scientific name |
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Cygnus falconeri Parker , 1865 [1] |
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It is systematically located closest to the mute swan than to other species of swans [3] . Inhabited the Middle Pleistocene on the islands of Malta and Sicily . Fossil remains are known from the Early Pliocene ( Zanklian Stage ), from strata about 5.3 million years old [3] . Like Sicilian dwarf elephants ( Elephas falconeri ) and other Mediterranean island endemic species , this species was probably isolated on the islands when the Mediterranean Sea level rose again about 5.3 million years ago.
The study of fossils made it possible to find out that the size of this swan was one third larger than the size of the modern mute swan [4] . Thus, the length of his body from the tip of the beak to the tail was about 190–210 cm (for the mute swan 145–160 cm) with a mass exceeding 16 kg [3] [5] . This species of swans was higher (but not heavier) than Sicilian dwarf elephants that lived on the island at the same time and reached 0.9–1 m at the withers [6] .
Due to its size and mass, Cygnus falconeri was most likely a poorly flying or completely flightless bird [7] . Unlike other swans, it was well adapted for movement on the ground, where it probably spent a lot of time [3] . He probably consumed mainly terrestrial plants.
Extinct in the Holocene [8] as a result of extreme climate changes or the emergence of new predators and competitors in their habitats [9] .