Casuariidae Casuariidae The bird family Casuariidae has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary and the emu. All living members of the family are very large flightless birds native to Australia-New Guinea, though the extinct potential member "Hypselornis" was native to India. The characteristics of the family are those of its members. The fossil record of casuariforms is interesting, but not very extensive. Some Australian fossils initially believed to be from emus were recognized to represent a distinct genus, "Emuarius", which had a cassowary-like skull and femur and an emu-like lower leg and foot. A Pliocene Indian ratite, "Hypselornis", has
Southern emu-wren from Java. From there it was named by François Levaillant as the gauze-tailed warbler. This mistake was not picked up for another 55 years. Veillot defined the genus "Malurus" and placed the southern emu-wren within it, naming it as "Malurus palustris". The southern emu-wren derives its common name from its tail feathers, the loosely barbed nature of which resembles feathers of the emu, the irony being that the emu-wrens are among the smallest of Australian birds, while the emu is the largest. Up to eleven subspecies have been described, with eight currently recognised: The adult male has rusty-brown upperparts with