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KULL short and massive, with beak rounded and stout. Carina of sternum aborted. Limb-bones short and very stout, the ulna being shorter than the humerus, and having very prominent tubercles for the secondaries; cnemial crest of tibia greatly developed. No foramen between third and fourth trochleae of tarso-metatarsus. Spines of dorsal vertebrae tall. The power of flight was absent. The chief differences from Cereopsis were the presence of extra pre-sacral vertebrae, so that two only instead of three ribs articulate with the sacrum; and an elevated pent-roof arrangement of the ossa innominata, which indicate more decided cursorial habits.


 * Cnemiornis calcitrans Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. V, p. 396 (1865).

HE type species. Very considerably larger than the existing Cereopsis novaehollandiae, with the limbs relatively much stouter and shorter" (Lydekker).

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

For full description see Trans. N. Z. Inst. VI, pp. 76-84, pls. X-XII (1874).