"dwarf cassowary from a specimen from New Britain, in 1857. The dwarf cassowary is a large bird but is slightly smaller than other living cassowaries (the southern cassowary and northern cassowary). It is between long and weighs between . It is a flightless bird with hard and stiff black plumage, a low triangular casque, pink cheek and red patches of skin on its blue neck. Compared to other cassowaries, the dwarf cassowary is shorter, with a tarsi length of , with a slightly smaller bill, at . The feet are large and powerful, equipped with dagger-like claws on the inner"
"common in European and American zoos, where it is known for its unmistakable appearance. Only Weltvogelpark Walsrode has all three species of cassowary in its collection, with the others being the single wattled cassowary (""Casuarius unappendiculatus"") and Bennett's cassowary (""Casuarius bennetti""), both of which are endemic to the tropical rainforest of New Guinea. The second, also known as the dwarf cassowary, is the smallest species. If subspecies are recognized, Weltvogelpark Walsrode has ""Casuarius bennettii westermanni"" and ""Casuarius unappendiculatus rufotinctus"". Some New Guinea Highlands societies capture cassowary chicks and raise them as semi-tame poultry, for use in ceremonial gift exchanges and"
"species of the genus ""Casuarius"". The southern cassowary has been described under a large number of scientific names, all of which are now considered taxonomic synonyms for the species. The southern cassowary has stiff, bristly black plumage, a blue face and neck, red on the cape and two red wattles measuring around in length hanging down around its throat. A horn-like brown casque, measuring high, sits atop the head. The bill can range from . The three-toed feet are thick and powerful, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw up to on the inner toe. The plumage is sexually monomorphic, but"
"a dagger-like claw that can be long. This claw is particularly fearsome since cassowaries sometimes kick humans and animals with their enormously powerful legs. Cassowaries can run at up to through the dense forest and can jump up to . They are good swimmers, crossing wide rivers and swimming in the sea. All three species have a keratinous skin-covered on their heads which grows with age. The casque's shape and size, up to , is species-dependent. ""Casuarius casuarius"" has the largest and ""Casuarius bennetti"" the smallest (tricorn shape), with ""Casuarius unappendiculatus"" having variations in between. Contrary to earlier findings, the"
"been classified as a casuariid based on its similarities to modern cassowaries and emus. However, no recent studies have been performed on these remains. Casuariidae The bird family Casuariidae has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary and the emu. All living members of the family are very large flightless birds native to Australia-New Guinea, though the extinct potential member ""Hypselornis"" was native to India. The characteristics of the family are those of its members. The fossil record of casuariforms is interesting, but not very extensive. Some Australian fossils initially believed to be from emus were recognized to represent"
"Casuariidae The bird family Casuariidae has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary and the emu. All living members of the family are very large flightless birds native to Australia-New Guinea, though the extinct potential member ""Hypselornis"" was native to India. The characteristics of the family are those of its members. The fossil record of casuariforms is interesting, but not very extensive. Some Australian fossils initially believed to be from emus were recognized to represent a distinct genus, ""Emuarius"", which had a cassowary-like skull and femur and an emu-like lower leg and foot. A Pliocene Indian ratite, ""Hypselornis"", has"
"Casuariiformes The Casuariiformes is an order of large flightless bird that has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary, and the only remaining species of emu. They are divided into either a single family, Casuariidae, or more typically two, with the emu splitting off into its own family, Dromaiidae. All four living members are native to Australia-New Guinea, but some possible extinct taxa occurred in other landmasses. The emus form a distinct family, characterized by legs adapted for running. As with all ratites, there are several contested theories concerning their evolution and relationships. As regards this order, it is"
"but when provoked they are capable of inflicting injuries, occasionally fatal, to dogs and people. The genus ""Casuarius"" was erected by the French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his ""Ornithologie"" published in 1760. The type species is the southern cassowary (""Casuarius casuarius""). The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had introduced the genus ""Casuarius"" in the 6th edition of his ""Systema Naturae"" published in 1748, but Linnaeus dropped the genus in the important tenth edition of 1758 and put the southern cassowary together with the common ostrich and the greater rhea in the genus ""Struthio"". As the publication date of Linnaeus's sixth"
"described – fades in specimens), and that locals are known to have traded live cassowaries for hundreds, if not thousands of years, some of which are likely to have escaped/been deliberately introduced to regions away from their origin. Cassowaries are closely related to the kiwis, both families diverging from a common ancestor approximately 40 million years ago. The binomial name ""Casuarius casuarius"" is derived from its Malay name ""kesuari"". The southern cassowary was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work, ""Systema Naturae"", as ""Struthio casuarius"", from a specimen from Seram, in 1758. It is now the type"
"resembling a conifer cone, made up of numerous carpels, each containing a single seed with a small wing. The generic name is derived from the Malay word for the cassowary, ""kasuari"", alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage, though the tree is called ""rhu"" in current standard Malay. Wilson and Johnson distinguish the two very closely related genera, ""Casuarina"" and ""Allocasuarina"" on the basis of:<br> ""Casuarina"" species are a food source of the larvae of hepialid moths; members of the genus ""Aenetus"", including ""A. lewinii"" and ""A. splendens"", burrow horizontally into the trunk then vertically"
"Threatened by the IUCN from 2004 to 2013 due to pressure by habitat loss, habitat degradation, being hunted for food, and often being kept in captivity. However, the species was downgraded to Least Concern in 2015, as current populations appear to be stable (although population trends remain generally unknown) and there is substantially less hunting pressure than in the past. Dwarf cassowary The dwarf cassowary (""Casuarius bennetti"") also known as the Bennett's cassowary, little cassowary, mountain cassowary, or mooruk, is the smallest of the three species of cassowaries. The scientific name commemorates the Australian naturalist George Bennett. He was the"
"Caseasauria Caseasauria is one of the two main clades of early synapsids, the other being the Eupelycosauria. Caseasaurs are currently known only from the Late Carboniferous and the Permian, and include two superficially different families, the small insectivorous or carnivorous Eothyrididae, and the large, herbivorous, potentially aquatic Caseidae. These two groups share a number of specialised features associated with the morphology of the snout and external naris. The ancestor of caseasaurs can be traced back to an insect eating or an omnivorous reptile-like synapsid from the Pennsylvanian time of the Carboniferous, possibly resembling ""Archaeothyris"", the earliest known synapsid. The caseasaurs"
"The cassowary has solitary habits and breeds less frequently in zoos than other ratites such as ostrich and emu. Unlike other ratites, it lives exclusively in tropical rainforest, and it is important to recreate this habitat well. Unlike the emu, which will live with other sympatric species like kangaroos in ""mixed Australian fauna"" displays, the cassowary does not cohabit well. Individual specimens must even be in separate enclosures, due to their solitary and aggressive nature. Territoriality is one of their most important aspects. The double wattled cassowary (""Casuarius casuarius"") is the most popular species in captivity and it is fairly"
"as food. They are the only indigenous Australasian animal known to have been partly domesticated by people prior to European arrival. Cassowaries have a reputation in folklore for being dangerous to people and domestic animals. During World War II American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of them. In his book ""Living Birds of the World"" from 1958, ornithologist Ernest Thomas Gilliard wrote: The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records"
"especially interesting whether emus or cassowaries are the more primitive form: the latter are generally assumed to retain more plesiomorphic features, but this does not need to be true at all; the fossil record is also ambiguous, and the present state of genomics does not allow for sufficiently comprehensive analyses. A combination of all these approaches with considerations of plate tectonics at least is necessary for resolving this issue. The total number of cassowary species described, based on minor differences in casque shape and color variations, formerly reached nine. Now, however, only 3 species are recognized, and most authorities only"
"edition was before the 1758 starting point of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Brisson and not Linnaeus is considered as the authority for the genus. Cassowaries (from the Malay name ""kasuārī"") are part of the ratite group, which also includes the emu, rheas, ostriches, and kiwi, and the extinct moas and elephant birds. Three extant species are recognized, and one extinct: Most authorities consider the taxonomic classification above to be monotypic; however, several subspecies of each have been described, and some of them have even been suggested as separate species, e.g., ""C. (b) papuanus"". The taxonomic name ""C. (b)"
"species: the southern cassowary (""Casuarius casuarius"") and the northern cassowary (""Casuarius unappendiculatus"") reach heights of 1.8 metres (6 ft). The southern cassowary is also native to northern Australia. The cassowary is one of the world's most dangerous birds, for it is capable of inflicting fatal injuries with its powerful legs and the dagger-like claw on its inner toe. It is known to have killed humans. The pigeons and parrots are well represented in New Guinea. They achieve their greatest evolutionary diversity in New Guinea for the island is abundant in fruits and nectar producing plants. The parrots of New Guinea,"
"or adding litter to regulate the temperature, then protects the chicks, who stay in the nest for about nine months, defending them fiercely against all potential predators, including humans. The young males then go off to find a territory of their own. The female does not care for the eggs or the chicks but moves on to lay eggs in the nests of several other males. Cassowaries are predominantly frugivorous. Besides fruits, their diet includes flowers, fungi, snails, insects, frogs, birds, fish, rats, mice, and carrion. Fruit from at least 26 plant families has been documented in the diet of"
"small trees. The casque would help protect the skull from such collisions"". Cassowaries eat fallen fruit and consequently spend much time under trees where seeds the size of golfballs or larger fall from heights of up to ; the wedge-shaped casque may protect the head by deflecting falling fruit. It has also been speculated that the casques play a role in either sound reception or acoustic communication. This is related to their discovery that at least the dwarf cassowary and southern cassowary produce very-low frequency sounds, which may aid in communication in dense rainforest. The ""boom"" vocalisation that cassowaries produce"
"is the lowest frequency bird-call known and is at the lower limit of human hearing. A cooling function for the very similar casques of guineafowl has been proposed. The average lifespan of wild cassowaries is believed to be about 40 to 50 years. Cassowaries are native to the humid rainforests of New Guinea and nearby smaller islands, and northeastern Australia. They will, however, venture out into palm scrub, grassland, savanna, and swamp forest. It is unclear if some islands' populations are natural or the result of trade in young birds by natives. Cassowaries are solitary birds except during courtship, egg-laying,"
"Cassinoceras Cassinoceras (""Cassin Horn"") is a genus of nautiloids belonging to the endocerid family Piloceratidae that comes from the late Early Ordovician of eastern North America and adjacent territories. ""Cassinoceras"" is characterized by short, laterally compressed, rapidly expanding shells in which the upper, dorsal, surface has a convex curvature and diverges strongly from the essentially straight lower, ventral surface. The siphuncle which entirely fills the apical portion at the back of the shell is also compressed and vertically expanding, and is filled with simple endocones with a complex system of endosiphuncular blades through which a flattened endosiphuncular tube with widely"
"Caseosaurus Caseosaurus ( ) is a dubious genus of herrerasaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 235 to 228 million years ago during the latter part of the Triassic Period in what is now Texas, in North America. ""Caseosaurus"" was a small, lightly-built, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore, that could grow up to long. The genus ""Caseosaurus"", is known from specimen UMMP 8870, an isolated hip bone that measures nearly 141 mm. A 3D model of this specimen is available on the University of Michigan Online Repository of Fossils. Size estimates suggest that ""Caseosaurus"" was at best long and weighed at most. The"
"a man. Kofron (1999 and 2003) studied 241 documented cassowary attacks and found that one human and two dogs had been killed, but no evidence that cassowaries can disembowel or dismember other animals. Cassowaries use their claws to defend themselves, to attack threatening animals, and in agonistic displays such as the Bowed Threat Display. The seriema also has an enlarged second toe claw, and uses it to tear apart small prey items for swallowing. In 2011, a study suggested that the sickle claw would likely have been used to pin down prey while biting it, rather than as a slashing"
"the current South American ratite lineage, the rheas. If this was the case, not only it expanded the fossil range of this lineage spatially, but temporally as well, since ""Diogenornis"" occurs in the late Paleocene and is among the earliest known ratites. The Pliocene indian ""Hypselornis"" has also been linked to emus and cassowaries, but no recent (post-30s) studies have been performed in this extremely obscure taxon. Casuariiformes (Sclater, 1880) Forbes 1884 Casuariiformes The Casuariiformes is an order of large flightless bird that has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary, and the only remaining species of emu. They"
"in copulation for extended periods of time. In some cases another male may approach and run the first male off. He will climb onto her to copulate as well. Males are far more tolerant of one another than females, which do not tolerate the presence of other females. The cassowary breeding season starts in May to June. Females lay three to eight large, bright green or pale green-blue eggs in each clutch into a prepared heap of leaf litter. The eggs measure about — only ostrich and emu eggs are larger. The male incubates the eggs for 50–52 days, removing"
"the open plains and woodlands. Also native to Australia and the islands to the north are the three species of cassowary. Shorter than an emu, but heavier and solidly built, cassowaries prefer thickly vegetated tropical forest. They can be very dangerous when surprised or cornered because of their razor sharp talons. In New Guinea, cassowary eggs are brought back to villages and the chicks raised for eating as a much-prized delicacy, despite (or perhaps because of) the risk they pose to life and limb. They reach up to tall and weigh as much as South America has two species of"
"is supposed to be quite tough. Australian administrative officers stationed in New Guinea were advised that it ""should be cooked with a stone in the pot: when the stone is ready to eat so is the Cassowary"". Cassowaries feed on the fruit of several hundred rainforest species and usually pass viable seeds in large dense scats. They are known to disperse seeds over distances greater than a kilometre, and thus play an important role in the ecosystem. Germination rates for seeds of the rare Australian rainforest tree ""Ryparosa"" were found to be much higher after passing through a cassowary's gut"
"They do not have retrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland. Cassowaries have small wings with 5–6 large remeges. These are reduced to stiff, keratinous quills, like porcupine quills, with no barbs. A claw is on each second finger. The furcula and coracoid are degenerate, and their palatal bones and sphenoid bones touch each other. These, along with their wedge-shaped body, are thought to be adaptations to ward off vines, thorns, and saw-edged leaves, allowing them to run quickly through the rainforest. Cassowaries have three-toed feet with sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports"
"Cosesaurus Cosesaurus is a genus of archosauromorph reptiles likely belonging to the family Tanystropheidae. It is known from fossil imprints of a single small skeleton, MGB V1, which was found in Muschelkalk outcrops near the municipalities of Mont-ral and Alcover in Spain. These outcrops are dated to the Ladinian age of the middle Triassic about 242 to 237 million years ago. The specimen is stored at the Museu Martorell (a.k.a. the Museu Geologia de Barcelona), which is now part of the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. The poor preservation and likely juvenile nature of the specimen has led to"
"documented cassowary attacks and found that one human and two dogs had been killed, but no evidence that cassowaries can disembowel or dismember other animals. Cassowaries use their claws to defend themselves, to attack threatening animals, and in agonistic displays such as the Bowed Threat Display. The seriema also has an enlarged second toe claw, and uses it to tear apart small prey items for swallowing. Phillip Manning and colleagues (2009) attempted to test the function of the sickle claw and similarly shaped claws on the forelimbs. They analyzed the bio-mechanics of how stresses and strains would be distributed along"
"Camarasauridae Camarasauridae (meaning ""chambered lizards"") is a family of neosauropod dinosaurs within the clade Macronaria, the sister group to Titanosauriformes. Among sauropods, camarasaurids are small to medium-sized, with relatively short necks. They are visually identifiable by a short skull with large nares, and broad, spatulate teeth filling a thick jaw. Based on cervical vertebrae and cervical rib biomechanics, camarasaurids most likely moved their necks in a vertical, rather than horizontal, sweeping motion, in contrast to most diplodocids. Cladistically, they are defined to be all sauropods more closely related to ""Camarasaurus supremus"" than to ""Saltasaurus loricatus"". Several skeletal features have been"
"Nassula ""Nassula"" is a genus of unicellular ciliates, belonging to the class Nassophorea. Like other members of the class, ""Nassula"" possesses a basket-like feeding apparatus (""nasse"", or ""cyrtos"") made up of cytopharyngeal rods (""nematodesmata""), which are themselves composed of closely packed microtubules. ""Nassula"" use this structure to ingest filamentous cyanobacteria, drawing individual strands of blue-green algae through the cytopharynx and into the body of the cell, where they are digested. As the algae are broken down, they can take on a variety of bright colours, which give ""Nassula"" a distinctive, variegated appearance under the microscope. The body is ovoid to"
"including humans, but not to cassowaries, which consume the fruit with no ill effects, because of their short and fast digestive system, which passes the fruit relatively intact. The cassowary's stomach also contains a unique combination of digestive enzymes, making it immune to the toxins. The cassowary and the cassowary plum have a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. The plum provides food for the cassowary, while the cassowary spreads the seeds of the tree. The bird eats the plums whole and passes them out mostly intact. The cassowary's stomach is said to massage the fruit, helping it grow. Cassowary plums are"