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Anserinae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anserinae
Temporal range: Middle Miocene to present
Domestic European geese
Anser anser domesticus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Subfamily: Anserinae
Vigors, 1825
Genera

See text

Synonyms

Cygninae

The Anserinae are a subfamily in the waterfowl family Anatidae. It includes the swans and the true geese. Under alternative systematical concepts (see e.g., Terres & NAS, 1991), it is split into two subfamilies, the Anserinae contain the geese and the ducks, while the Cygninae contain the swans.

Systematics

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Swans (Tribe Cygnini)[1]

True geese (Tribe Anserini)

  • Genus Anser – grey and white geese
  • Genus Branta – black geese

Unresolved

These two genera are distinct from other geese and often elevated to a subfamily of their own (Cereopsinae), or alternatively into the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae:

Tribe Cereopseini

Some enigmatic subfossils of very large goose-like birds from the Hawaiian Islands do not appear to be moa-nalos (goose-sized dabbling ducks). They cannot be assigned to any genus living today, though most, if not all, may be fairly close to Branta:

References

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  1. ^ "Fossilworks: Cygninae". www.fossilworks.org. Retrieved 2022-04-29.

Further reading

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  • Gonzalez, J.; Düttmann, H.; Wink, M. (2009). "Phylogenetic relationships based on two mitochondrial genes and hybridization patterns in Anatidae". Journal of Zoology. 279 (3): 310–318. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00622.x.