Anserinae
Encyclopedia
The Anserinae is a subfamily in the waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....

 family Anatidae
Anatidae
Anatidae is the biological family of birds that includes ducks, geese and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica and on most of the world's islands and island groups...

. It includes the swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

s and true geese
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....

. Under alternative systematical
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...

 concepts (see e.g., Terres & NAS, 1991), it is split into two subfamilies, the Anserinae containing the geese (and also the whistling-ducks), while the Cygninae contain the swans.

A number of other waterbirds, mainly related to the shelduck
Tadorninae
The Tadorninae is the shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans....

s, have "goose" as part of their name; see the family page at Anatidae
Anatidae
Anatidae is the biological family of birds that includes ducks, geese and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica and on most of the world's islands and island groups...

 and the goose
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....

 page for these.

Systematics

Swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

s
- tribe
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

 Cygnini
  • Genus Cygnus - true swans
The black-and-yellow-billed swans are sometimes separated in the genus Olor.


True Geese - tribe Anserini
  • Genus Anser
    Anser (genus)
    The waterfowl genus Anser includes all grey geese and sometimes the white geese. It belongs to the true geese and swan subfamily . The genus has a Holarctic distribution, with at least one species breeding in any open, wet habitats in the subarctic and cool temperate regions of the Northern...

    - grey geese
  • Genus Chen
    Chen (genus)
    The white geese are a small group of waterfowl which are united in the genus or subgenus Chen, in the true geese and swan subfamily Anserinae. They breed on subarctic areas of North America and around the Bering Strait, migrating south in winter....

    - white geese (sometimes included in Anser)
  • Genus Branta
    Branta
    The black geese of the genus Branta are waterfowl belonging to the true geese and swans subfamily Anserinae. They occur in the northern coastal regions of the Palearctic and all over North America, migrating to more southernly coasts in winter, and as resident birds in the Hawaiian Islands...

    - black geese


Unresolved
  • Genus Coscoroba - Coscoroba Swan


The following two genera are distinct from other geese and often elevated to a subfamily of their own (Cereopsinae), or alternatively into the shelduck
Shelduck
The shelducks, genus Tadorna, are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans....

 subfamily Tadorninae:

Tribe Cereopsini
  • Genus Cereopsis - Cape Barren Goose
  • Genus Cnemiornis - New Zealand geese (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )


There are some enigmatic subfossil
Subfossil
Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

s of very large goose-like birds from the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

 which do not appear to be moa-nalo
Moa-nalo
The moa-nalo are a group of extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on the larger Hawaiian Islands, except Hawaii itself, in the Pacific...

s (goose-sized dabbling ducks). They cannot be assigned to any genus living today, though most if not all may be fairly close to Branta:
  • Geochen rhuax - initially allied with Cereopsis, but this seems hardly correct for reasons of biogeography
    Biogeography
    Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...

    .
  • Giant Hawaiʻi Goose, ?Branta sp.
  • Giant Oʻahu Goose, Anatidae
    Anatidae
    Anatidae is the biological family of birds that includes ducks, geese and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica and on most of the world's islands and island groups...

    sp. et gen. indet.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK