''Progura'' is an extinct genus of

megapode The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy leg ...

that was native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was described from

Plio-Pleistocene The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&n ...

deposits at the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generally ...

and

Chinchilla Chinchilla refers to either of two species ('' Chinchilla chinchilla'' and '' Chinchilla lanigera'') of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "her ...

in southeastern

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

by Charles De Vis.

Taxonomy

Comparison of Australian megapodes showed that ''Progura'' was closely related to the living

malleefowl The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...

(''Leipoa ocellata''), though the fossil species ''P. gallinacea'' was considerably larger than the living one. A second species, ''P. naracoortensis'', was described in 1974 by van Tets from deposits in the Naracoorte Caves of southeastern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

with differing size and leg proportions. It was formerly considered a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''P. gallinacea'', on the grounds of

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

. However in a 2017 review of Cenozoic megapodes, ''P. naracoortensis'' was found to be distinct from ''P. gallinacea'' and therefore reassigned to the genus '' Latagallina'' In the 2017 review, a new second species, ''Progura campestris'' was created for Pleistocene material from the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its no ...

Description

Its weight was estimated by van Tets to vary from 4–7 kg (8-15 lb). The proportions of the

long bone The long bones are those that are longer than they are wide. They are one of five types of bones: long, short, flat, irregular and sesamoid. Long bones, especially the femur and tibia, are subjected to most of the load during daily activities ...

s were similar to, though larger and more robust than, those of the malleefowl, and it had a relatively broader bill, head and body. The deep

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

on the

sternum The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major bl ...

indicates that it was capable of flight. The

thylacine The thylacine (; binomial name ''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmani ...

may have been a predator of ''Progura'', as it was adapted to killing large ground-dwelling birds (since its comparatively moderate bite force was more suited to hollow avian bones), such as the

Tasmanian nativehen The Tasmanian nativehen (''Tribonyx mortierii'') (Palawa Kani, palawa kani: piyura) (alternative spellings: Tasmanian native-hen or Tasmanian native hen) is a flightless Rallidae, rail and one of twelve species of birds endemism, endemic to Aust ...

and

Tasmanian emu The Tasmanian emu (''Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis'') is an extinct subspecies of emu. It was found in Tasmania, where it had become isolated during the Late Pleistocene. As opposed to the other insular emu taxa, the King Island emu and th ...

Eggs

Eggs previously assigned to ''

Genyornis ''Genyornis newtoni'' is an extinct species of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. Many other species of Austral ...

'' are now considered to have belonged to the giant malleefowl. Therefore, data on

dromornithid Dromornithidae, known as mihirungs (after Tjapwuring ''Mihirung paringmal'', "giant bird") and informally as thunder birds or demon ducks, were a clade of large, flightless Australian birds of the Oligocene through Pleistocene epochs. All are no ...

diet and chronology can actually be ascribed to this bird, instead. It is believed that ''P. gallinacea'' buried its eggs in warm sand or soil.

Taxonomy

Description

Eggs

References

Further reading