Elen Shute – The Conversation

Bruce Greatwich/Broome Bird Observatory

March 21, 2023

Our mysterious night parrot has terrible vision – but we discovered it might be able to hear like an owl

Elen Shute, Flinders University; Alice Clement, Flinders University, and Gavin Prideaux, Flinders University

A wonky skull. Enlarged ear chambers. Asymetrical ears. It looks like the elusive night parrot has traded off vision for excellent hearing

Hypothetical reconstruction of the largest extinct megapode, Progura gallinacea (right), with a modern Brush-turkey and a Grey Kangaroo. Artwork by E. Shute, from photos by Tony Rudd, Kim Benson and Aaron Camens

June 14, 2017

Tall turkeys and nuggety chickens: large ‘megapode’ birds once lived across Australia

Elen Shute, Flinders University; Gavin Prideaux, Flinders University, and Trevor H. Worthy, Flinders University

Large birds once lived across Australia, only to become extinct around the time that giant marsupials and other megafauna died out during the Pleistocene “ice ages”.

A living coucal from South Africa, whose huge prehistoric relatives lived on the Nullarbor. Pascal Bernadin

July 28, 2016

The world’s biggest cuckoos once roamed the Nullarbor Plain

Elen Shute, Flinders University; Gavin Prideaux, Flinders University, and Trevor H. Worthy, Flinders University

The Nullarbor is an arid, treeless expanse today. But several hundred thousand years ago it was home to a menagerie of species, including two newly discovered giant cuckoo-like birds.

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