New to Emu Keeping...Help!

[Tame Emu Guy]

Lisa, 'Goofy' is a good word. They are strangely personable. They manage to be big and cute.

Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

I got into Emus through my 3D animation, I was on Youtube looking for reference videos to animate some Dinosaurs to move more realistically, and one-for-one Emus are built identically to non-Avian Dinosaurs in more ways than one.



Add a couple tons and there's Gerry the Emu behind that.

What I found though was a video of someone with a pet Emu (Probably someone from this forum too) and that got my interest.
But Gerry is not just a study subject or just a pet, he's my good buddy. He's become something of a local celebrity too with people coming to visit him all the time.
People are always surprised to see for themselves what he's actually like because he's never what they expected, I think most people expect a giant chicken and not a two legged puppy with feathers and a beak.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Yes, Indeedy, Raptor65! It is like an emu in many ways.

Look up ‘Dromonmis stirtoni,’ a species of mega-fauna from Oz. Nine feet high and . . . blast – how many pounds is1,200 pounds? The skeleton looks like that of an emu with a decidedly non-budgie-looking head.

I sure would like to go back in time to the Oz of 100 million years ago: giant crocodiles, giant ‘emus,’ giant kangaroos (and pygmy emus?).

Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

Not to mention Aepyornis ('Elephant bird') and Dinornis (Moa), two colossal birds in their own right, and not far removed from Emus either. The Moa was the largest of the two and only very recently extinct as well, probably around 1500.

But 100 million years ago in Australia there was a carnivorous Dinosaur described in 2009 called Australovenator, if you compare that Dinosaur's bones to an Emu or a Cassowary the only real difference is the size. Till you get to the head that is.
Fossilized Australian Dinosaurs are a rarity, so this find was big news in paleontology and still is because they keep finding more of the animal.
The thing that really strikes me is Australovenator is a Carnosaur (This group contains animals like Allosaurus), Emus are Coelurosaurs (This group contains animals like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor as well as all modern birds), both are Theropods but those two groups split sometime during the Jurassic which means Ratites carry features which are at least 170 million years old, perhaps older than that by an additional 30 or 40 million years.
What's more is Ratites were around at the same time Australovenator was, but unable to compete with their large cousins few Ratites got larger than a Turkey until the Dinosaurs disappeared.

This video goes into the relationship between Dinosaurs like Australovenator and modern birds like the Cassowary and Emu:

Just a warning though, the documentary does focus on an autopsy of a Cassowary killed after being hit by a car but that link skips over that part until it hits the 33 minute mark when they go back to it.

 

[TexasLisa]

Thank you (I think) for the replies. Supreme Emu and Raptor are you two paleontologists, biologists, etc.???? They do sound intriguing. We have almost 7 acres and haven't decided what to put on it yet. Now all I have to do is convince my husband who is an engineer.

Lisa

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Be psiklojikerly cunning! Explain what a fascinating bit of ‘engineering’ an emu is: its legs articulate forward. It has two sets of eyelids per eye. It has no tongue. It has unique feathers. The male does the parenting. Children love them.[How is that syklojikly cunning? I don't know -- s'true but.]

S.E.

 

[chickenzoo]

I always wanted to be the one who designed and made the skin and muscle for animatronics.......... Always loved that type of stuff.
Emus are live having your own pet feathered dino.....hehe

 

[kathyinmo]

It has no tongue.

S.E.

No tongue?

 

[Raptor65]

They have a pretty good sized hyoid bone to anchor the tongue on to as well.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Gee! Emus got tongues!!

I’ve watched them toss food back from so close for so long, I truly rooly thought they had no tongues. Thanks for that, Kathyinmo.

Best of all, for me, is the thought that you can get that little bit closer to examine them. (The tick thing is still driving me up the wall. Can’t . . . quite . . . )

Supreme Emu