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Flightless cormorant drying its wings. The flightless cormorant is the largest extant member of its family, 89–100 cm (35–39.5 in) in length and weighing 2.5–5.0 kg (5.5–11.0 lb), and its wings are about one-third the size that would be required for a bird of its proportions to fly.
This name was coined for the flightless cormorant, which does indeed have small wings. Genetic studies have found that the neotropic and double-crested cormorants form a clade with the flightless cormorant, and they are thus placed together in the genus Nannopterum despite both species having normal-sized wings and full flight capabilities. [4]
The wing drying action is seen even in the flightless cormorant but not in the Antarctic shags [13] or red-legged cormorants. Alternate functions suggested for the spread-wing posture include that it aids thermoregulation [ 14 ] or digestion, balances the bird, or indicates presence of fish.
Pygmy cormorant: Microcarbo pygmaeus: 1 Reed cormorant: Microcarbo africanus: 2 Crowned cormorant: Microcarbo coronatus: 3 Little cormorant: Microcarbo niger: 4 Little pied cormorant: Microcarbo melanoleucos: 5 Red-legged cormorant: Poikilocarbo gaimardi: 6 Brandt's cormorant: Urile penicillatus: 7 Red-faced cormorant: Urile urile: 8 Pelagic ...
This genus name was originally coined for the flightless cormorant (N. harrisi), which does have very small wings; although the double-crested cormorant has normal-sized wings, it (along with the neotropic cormorant, N. brasilianum) was still reclassified into the genus Nannopterum when the relationship between it and the flightless cormorant ...
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The holotype associated with Plotopterum, the humeral end of a left coracoid, was roughly the size of those of the extant Brandt's cormorant, but narrower and more rounded. Several of its characteristics, such as the outline of the head, the shape of the bone, the scapular facet and its adjacent shaft were described as reminiscent of cormorants ...
In their landmark 2008 work Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds, Australian ornithologists Les Christidis and Walter E. Boles coined the name Phalacrocoraciformes for the group due to the much greater number of species of cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae) over boobies and gannets . [5]