Ratites are a group of mostly large, flightless birds. You know the ostrich, but do you know the names of the rest? Watch this video and find out!Visit our w...

With humanity’s deplorable historical practice of keeping other sentient beings captive, and breeding them to exploit their bodies as commodities…

Changes in regulatory DNA, rather than mutations to genes themselves, grounded some birds, a study finds.

This flightless South American relative of the ostriches stands about 5 feet tall with a body about the size of a sheep; no similar species in its range. Rheas roam widely on open Patagonian steppe and also occur locally in open habitats of the Andes, mainly at very high elevations. Can be confiding where used to people, but in other areas wary, running strongly and quickly. Rheas occur singly or in groups, and males take care of the young. Adults have bold pale spots on the body, first-year birds are plainer overall.

Rhea baby

Emu are the world's second-largest flightless bird, second only to the ostrich. These ratites are native to Australia.

Here I painted the feathers with a more primitive look. The horizontal stripes are inspired in juvenile ratites Zanabazar

Learn about some ratites of New Zealand and Australia: flightless birds! Discover unique characteristics of the cassowary, emu, kiwi, kagu, and kakapo.

An international team of researchers from New Zealand, Australia and Denmark have published research revealing new evidence of how the moa (large, long-lived ratites) were hunted to extinction.

Elephant birds, or, as they are known in Malagasy, Vorompatra (“marsh bird”) are iconic giant ratites from the island subcontinent of Madagascar. While they are very commonly present in prehistory…

You know if I'm spending all this time and energy to update the adult T. rex design for Saurian, I had to do the youngsters too. Their colors were inspired by baby komodo dragons and baby ratites, which have different coloration than their adults to help them camouflage. As I'm sure you've noticed, these guys are naked too. From the experts we've talked to working with Saurian, animals cannot completely change integument with age. But "baby cassowaries have feathers on their heads and lose them as they age!" I hear you say. Cassowaries always had skin under the feathers as babies, so they are really just losing feathers, not a radical change in integument. So like, they aint losing their feathers and growing scales. As such it was decided that the baby rexes should also be scaly if the adult is. Anyways look at how fast these turds look, its like a horse with a monitor lizard head.

Cassowaries are flightless and belong to the ratite group, which is probably the oldest living branch of the the birds. Although it is certain that their distant ancestors were able to fly, the lack of a keeled sternum, to which all other birds attach their wing-flapping muscles, suggests that the experiment was soon discontinued on the grounds of ergonomic unsuitability. Ratite ancestors were probably similar in size to the tinamous, to which they are related, and subsequently increased their size after losing the ability to fly. Extinct ratites include the giant elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) of Madagascar, the variously sized moas (Dinornithidae) of New Zealand and the mihirungs (Dromornithidae) of Australia. The distribution of all extant ratite species was achieved through non-flight locomotion and as a consequence of continental drift movements during the last 85 million years. The closest living relative to the cassowary is the emu of Australia, while both are near relatives of the New Zealand kiwis. There are three cassowary species in a single genus - Casuarius casuarius (Linnaeus 1758). C. bennetti (Gould 1857) and C. unappendiculatus (Blythe 1860). Each of these species is readily identifiable by the presence or absence of wattles on the front of the neck, even in newly-hatched chicks. From: www.species.net/Aves/Cassowary.html

Bone Clones Cassowary Skull. The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is found in New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia. Native to lowland rainforests, this bird feasts on fruit as well as insects, fungi, and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are members of a diverse group of large, flightless birds known as ratites. Unlike other flightless birds, they have no keel on their sternum. Without a place for the wing muscles to attach, these birds would not be able to fly even with developed wings. However, they do have long, powerful legs for running and defense with strong three toed feet armed with claws up to 4 inches (12cm) long. The southern cassowary is the largest of the three species of cassowary and the only one to have red skin flaps hanging from their neck. The large helmet-like crest (casque) on their heads is composed of modified cranial bones made of trabecular bone and cartilage, and it varies in size and shape. There is debate as to what the function of the casques may be, but it has been suggested that it is used in communication as an amplifier of the low-frequency vocalizations they make. This gorgeous cast of an adult male cassowary would be an excellent addition to any biology, ecology or comparative avian anatomy course.