Anserinae

For other waterbirds, mainly related to the shelducks, that have "goose" as part of their name, see Anatidae and goose.

Anserinae Temporal range: Middle Miocene to present
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Domestic geese
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Subfamily:	Anserinae Vigors, 1825
Genera
see text
Synonyms
Cygninae

The Anserinae is a subfamily in the waterfowl family Anatidae. It includes the swans and true geese. Under alternative systematical concepts (see e.g., Terres & NAS, 1991), it is split into two subfamilies, the Anserinae containing the geese and the ducks, while the Cygninae contain the swans.

Systematics

Swans – tribe Cygnini

• Genus Cygnus – true swans

The black-and-yellow-billed swans are sometimes separated in the genus Olor.

True Geese – tribe Anserini

• Genus Anser – grey geese
• Genus Chen – white geese (sometimes included in Anser)
• Genus Branta – black geese

Unresolved

• Genus Coscoroba – coscoroba swan

The following two genera are distinct from other geese and often elevated to a subfamily of their own (Cereopsinae), or alternatively into the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae:

Tribe Cereopsini

• Genus Cereopsis – Cape Barren goose
• Genus Cnemiornis – New Zealand geese (prehistoric)

There are some enigmatic subfossils of very large goose-like birds from the Hawaiian Islands which do not appear to be moa-nalos (goose-sized dabbling ducks). They cannot be assigned to any genus living today, though most if not all may be fairly close to Branta:

• Geochen rhuax – initially allied with Cereopsis, but this seems hardly correct for reasons of biogeography.
• Giant Hawaiʻi goose, ?Branta sp.
• Giant Oʻahu goose, Anatidae sp. et gen. indet.

References

• Terres, John K. & National Audubon Society (1991): The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Wings Books, New York. ISBN 0-517-03288-0

External links

Media related to Anserinae at Wikimedia Commons