Aepyornis Definition & Meaning

Origin of Aepyornis

New Latin Aepyornīs genus name Greek aipus high Greek ornīs bird or- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Ancient Greek αἰπύς (aepys, “high”) and Ancient Greek ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”).

From Wiktionary

Aepyornis maxima, which laid enormous eggs, and not unnaturally recalls the mythical " roc " that figures so largely in Arabian tales.
Between fifty and sixty so-called families of land birds alone are found within its limits, and of them at least nine are peculiar; the typical genera of which are Buphaga, Euryceros, Philepitta, Musophaga, Irrisor, Leptosoma, Colius, Serpentarius, Struthio, Aepyornis.
Lastly must be noted the extinct tall Ratite species of Aepyornis with its several fancy genera.
A diagnosis covering all the Ratitae (struthio, rhea, casuarius, dromaeus, apteryx and the allied fossils dinornis and aepyornis) would be as follows - (i) terrestrial birds without keel to the sternum, absolutely flightless; (ii) quadrate bone with a single proximal articulating knob; (iii) coracoid and scapula fused together and forming an open angle; (iv) normally without a pygostyle; (v) with an incisura ischiadica; (vi) rhamphotheca compound; (vii) without apteria or bare spaces in the plumage; (viii) with a complete copulatory organ, moved by skeletal muscles.
Further, it is the opinion of competent ornithologists that there is affinity of the Australian emeus and cassowaries with the New Zealand moas and with the Malagasy Aepyornis.

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