Gallus giganteus
Probably a giant chicken ever existed is the Jungle Fowl species named Gallus giganteus . Little is known about the chicken. It was extinct a long time ago and will be seen from the Malay , an ancient fighting fowl with long legs wide, strong beak and a walnut. Probably derives from the Malay Gallus giganteus , will only Gallus giganteus have been much greater, although the former has a Malay skull height of 90 cm had. U.S. Marines discovered in the war on the island of Saipan , in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean , in an apparently wild jungle fowl very large and significant fighting type fowl.Initiated by the Marines were after the end of the war some copies to North and South America, shipped, particularly for Brazil interested. Dr. JD Burnette from Olmsted Falls (Ohio), one of the biggest trendsetters and propagators of this breed, mentions really sensational weight limits of 4.36 to 9.68 kg for the male and 2.9 to 7.26 for them. At the same time sees Dr. Burnette in Saipan Jungle fowl living proof that Gallus giganteus never extinct.
However, in an international context will be proved that specified mammoth weights actually be realized. In this respect the difference of votes between 5 kg minimum and maximum weight, something that is not found in other fowls, for thought. In some cases, created a Saipanhanen skull height reached 90 cm and a flat comb feature, sometimes lacking it completely. The beak is horn colored, with dark colors and is also completely dark. The chin and earlobes are small or lacking at times. The deep yellow eyes are well protected by the highly developed eyebrows. The head is strong and long and the back is also quite long. The heavily feathered tail is relatively flat, and the hens straight. The shoulders are well developed and the wings are like Irish Male at the back. Over the long strong legs are yellow. The colors are gold, platinum, white and colored game.
So had Gallus giganteus would probably have seen, but probably much larger.
Gallus giganteus was domesticated some eight to ten thousand years ago, way back in prehistory. It inhabited, most likely, only one island in the Indian Ocean, possibly one of the Andaman group. It was destined for extinction, but, as luck would have it, was preserved by the first humans to reach the island. It would have had no fear of man, and was thus easily tamed.
It had a well developed color pattern which was predator driven; not a mammalian predator, as it was flightless, but more than likely another bird such as a hawk or gull. Hens were cryptically marked. Chicks had a rather colorful pattern of their own, quite different from the 'chipmunk' pattern of the Red Jungle Fowl chick, that served to distract and disrupt.
There has been quite a lot of genetic work on the domestic fowl over the last few decades. The enigma of the Austronesian Seafarer arriving in the Comoros, Madagascar and Reunion centuries before anyone else, including Africans who live very close by these islands has been of some interest to researchers.
The DNA of their pigs and chickens, unearthed in the most ancient sites- radiocarboned, together with words used for these and other animals- reveal some interesting things about the Austronesians and their livestock.
The DNA of the oldest pigs carried to Madagascar came from wild pigs endemic to the Comoros islands. Chicken bone remnants were also unearthed at these same sites in the same strata. Their DNA is not identical with any known chicken breeds - well known races from India, Indonesia, Malaysia and so forth. However, it does appear that giant game fowl from Malaysia and Indonesia, Saipan and Japan share several genetic and morphological features with those of the subfossils discovered in the limestones caves of Madagscar.
It has also been discovered that chickens were present in the Comoros before the first human beings are believed to have reached the islands.
One of the problems of these fowl, together with bones discovered in Northern China that are a thousand or so years younger, is that they are gigantic- much larger than any living junglefowl. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the chicken bones discovered in the Comoros,Madagascar and Northern China are much older than the chicken has been domesticated- or rather, the development of the size -was unknown in these ancient times. That doesn't mean that it's impossible that the chicken was domesticated thousands of years earlier than believed, but rather there is no evidence to substantiate that theory. The evidence that places a species of giant junglefowl in the hands of South East Asians (Austronesians) prior to the time that they are believed to have first begun their Neolithic stage is a bit stronger.
The Austronesians cultivated wild species at a specific period of time and then carried these semi-domestic species with them everywhere they went.
It may be that the Austronesians discovered a flightless race of junglefowl on some island in South East Asia, Tioman for example, and carried these birds to the Comoros, Madagascar, Reunion and back to their homelands in Vietnam. Wherever they came from, they must have been come from a place relatively devoid of ground predators as they are fairly flightless. On islands where large predators like leopards or tigers are extinct, mid-sized predators like civets and smaller cats tend to quickly eradicate ground birds, even those that fly well, because the small predators have no predators of their own.
There are some haplotypes unique to Malagasy, Ganoi, Malay, Asil, Shamo, Koeyoshi and Saipan which suggest that there are novel genetics in their ancestry not shared by other junglefowl species.
The fossil record of Gallus is even more curious with extinct species ranging from South Eastern Europe through the Near East, Southern China and Malaysia.
I wonder if the Austronesians carried this upright creature -that carried its wings over its back- (as if to shield it from avian predators versus covering its vulnerable flanks, which shield against terrestrial predators) to Comoros where it grew even larger and more fierce.
Regardless, the notion that any of the well known games came before the Malagasy/Ganoi/Bali is what has been put into question with the molecular evidence.
It would appear that they were created using the genetics of this large fowl. Additionally, the morphology of the birds one observes in very remote villages, especially on Reunion and in Madagascar are problematic. They do not exhibit the double wattles or single comb of the Red JF but rather, have the single lappet of the Green JF and Sri Lanka Jf ( The Sri Lanka species exhibits a prominent gular lappet as well as double wattles.) Also, other traits, for example multiple spurring, reduced sexual dimorphism, the presence of brilliant red facial skin extending down to the upper breast; the curious comb with its wide, cow tooth crown- covering much of its forehead and top of its skull- in both sexes-the curious ossification of the skull- a trait apparent in prominently crested races like the Silky, Polish and Crested Mapuche The density of its bones -the skeletal modifications of an extended rib cage and rudimentary wings- the thick, broad bill- these are not traits of known JF species.
This could be docked up to mutation accentuated via artificial selection-save for the fact that some of these traits -at least the enormous size and its haplotypey are not known to have existed so early in the domestication of the chicken. Other chicken bones known from similar times are only the size of the Red JF- perhaps a bit larger but certainly no bigger than a leghorn.
Let’s delve a bit further into the origins of the Desert Isles fowl carried by Yapese speaking Micronesian seafarers to the Quechuan speaking Indians of South America.
Malagasy Ganoi (Austronesian Fowl Gallus giganteus ) courtesy Ultimate Fowl
Austronesian Chief
This is a map of peoples that speak Austronesian languages. Austronesian Culture was a primary foundation of the younger Polynesian Culture. The Austronesians originated in South East Asia but they expanded their culture by boat all the way to Madagascar and the Comoros Islands off the coast of Africa. They brought back plants and animals from Madagascar and the Comoros Islands to Malaysia and onwards. Their two most important domestic animal species were the Vietnamese Pig and the Austronesian Fowl (Giant Gamefowl) Gallus giganteaus .
We're all familiar with the debate about Polynesian contact with South America prior to European arrival.
Firstly, we often hear the term Polynesian without understanding that at least three distinct and equally ancient ethnic cultures provided the foundation of newer younger mixing pot of a culture that is the source of the term.
In other words, the Polynesian people and Polynesian culture are the result of admixture between Melanesian ; Micronesian and Austronesian peoples.
The three most prominent surviving cultures of Oceania and the Pacific. Austronesian culture has been subsumed by Polynesian in the eastern territories but one point in time,Austronesians were the dominant seafaring culture from Madagascar off the coast of Africa all the way to the Eastern Pacific off the coast of South America.
It would appear that the first seafarers to reach many islands in remote Oceania were Melanesians, followed shortly after by Micronesians and eventually, and even more successfully, by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Each brought their own respective "food baskets" with them and naturalized these plants and animals on the islands that they would call home. Each group would eventually be inundated and or expelled by the next and so the most remote islands became the strong holds of specific ethnic types whereas islands that were more easily reached were melting pots. Irregardless of ethnic inhabitant, the islands were homes to populations of dogs, pigs and junglefowl carried there by seafarers from different regions within Indonesia, Malaysia and Melanesia.
Melanesians by and large did not carry Junglefowl but they did carry unique dogs , pigs, taro and banana.
Micronesians carried Junglefowl of at least two different varieties, one of which (Arjuna Bekisar) being of hybrid origin.
Micronesian Ayam Bekisar ( Green JF by Indonesian Red Jf with no or very little domestic fowl genes)
Austronesians carried at least four different varieties of Junglefowl, three of which ( Austronesian G. giganteus; Wallikikilli Basket Bantam and two different forms of Ketawa) being of hybrid origin.
Wallikikilli Basket Bantams ( Sri Lanka Junglefowl sires in ancestry)
The origins of the Austronesian Game Fowl Gallus giganteaus are a bit of a mystery but it seems that they are likely descended of at least two extinct island forms. The birds probably originated on the Comoros Islands and there may well have been more than one form. Both forms were at least seasonally naked necked. Both exhibited a single gular lappet. One was prominently crested. Both lacked wattles. Having never encountered humans before, these enormous fowl were fearless. The birds were introduced by the Austronesians to Madagascar and Reunion shortly after their discovery. They were subsequently carried by Austronesian seafarers to South East Asia and beyond. The Austronesian Fowl is the ancestor of the Malay, Saipan and other giant game breeds. They are one of the foundations of all domestic utility breeds. Transplanted to desert islands and crossed with Asian junglefowl of more typical dimensions, the Austronesian fowl quickly shrank in in size. All naked necked, frizzled, and crested breeds have Austronesian ancestors at their genetic foundation. We'll discuss the role of the Austronesian fowl in the ancestry of South American breeds in depth in the Mapuche thread. It should suffice to say that our familiar Quechua has a bit of Austronesian fowl in its ancestry and that these genetic founders were established first on the desert isles of the South Pacific and Oceania.
While I've posted a number of photos of males of this archaic type, it was actually females (pictured below) that were amongst the founders of the Yapese Desert Isles stock that were eventually transported to N.W. South America.
Ayam Ketawa Dijual (Bekisar X Austronesian).
Ayam Bekisar Hutan (Bekisar X Wallikikilli X Austronesian)
Ayam Ketawa Hutan (Wallikikilli Basket Bantams X Austronesian).
The composite of all three of the ancient original cultures is what we term as Polynesian. Nevertheless, because of the different strata, the different points in history in which the respective ancestral cultures arrived on these remote islands, we have livestock and plant cultivars, which can be linked directly with one or more of the respective founder cultures.
For example, the Austronesians carried at least one of the giant flightless junglefowl from Madagascar and or the Comoros to Saipan; to Tonga and Samoa.
They also carried the Basket Bantam from Sri Lanka to Marquesas.
The Micronesians carried Bekisar from their homelands in Indonesia all the way to Ponape and to Easter Island. They also carried the Bekisar with them to the Marquesas Islands. The Micronesians arrived in Marquesas long before the Austronesians who largely displaced them. Austronesian ethnocide/genocide against the Micronesian peoples may have obliged the Micronesians to move further out into the sea. This is likely how and why they ended up on Easter Island, which was not incidentally, inhabited by the Micronesians several centuries before the arrival of the Austronesians. The Micronesians introduced their uniquely Micronesian fowl to Easter Island. A topic which is often discussed is how successive waves of new migrants carried their own culturally/genetically distinctive fowl leading to the formation of well-defined breeds even on this most remote of populated islands in the world. This generation of different well-demarcated breeds and even races of fowl on Easter Island was a consequence of chickens being the only domestic animal on the island- the only land animal larger than a small lizard. Austronesians carried in their larger diversity of archaic chicken races- the naked neck giant; the two different Ketawa types and the Wallikikilli Basket Bantams not to mention the mainland form of the Red Junglefowl.
The Micronesians had probably only carried the Bekisar and the Indonesian Red Junglefowl. The Micronesians lived on an Easter Island (Rapa Nui) covered in lush temperate araucaria and tree fern forests. They hunted seals and dolphins by boat. They may even have had pigs and dogs. Their Micronesian fowl had probably reverted to the wild. Once the Austronesians arrived they quickly denuded the island of all tree cover. The peoples farmed similar crops and both became almost entirely dependent of chicken farming for protein.
Melanesian peoples
Photo removed for content
Micronesian peoples
Austronesian peoples
This issue of displacement and replacement is important for us to understand. When Micronesians arrived on an island with crops, pigs and fowl from Indonesia, they set up what amounted to be an Indonesian colony on an uninhabited land. ( Of course over the course of history, we can be sure the Micronesians displaced many Melanesian populations as well.) The pigs and fowl went wild and some sort of equilibrium was met ,eventually, with the Micronesians settling down to their normal way of life, fishing and farming in the jungles.
When Austronesians came, carrying their own respective food baskets from Malaysia and beyond, they displaced the Micronesians and overran all that the Micronesians had managed to establish.
The pigs the Austronesians carried with them were of a different species as were their fowl. There were also many more Austronesians arriving than there had ever been Micronesians. The Austronesians were able to outcompete the Micronesians on all fronts. Their pigs become the dominant genotype on the islands as did their fowl- at least temporarily because as time passed, the ecology and climate of these islands proved to be more formidable than perhaps the Austronesians were prepared for.
Whereas the Micronesians lived in small populations and survived on relatively little, the Austronesians had a larger footprint. They wiped out their ecosystems in no time.
Typhoons roll into these regions every few decades and the Austronesians were ill equipped to deal with the aftermath of these incredible storms. It is simply more difficult to find food and shelter for a larger population of people, especially after you've denuded the ecosystem entirely. These storms by the way are the defining ecological force of these islands. Like fierce snow storms and long winters define landscapes in some places in North America, the Typhoons are responsible for the shape that life takes on these islands. Every plant and animal must be adapted to survive these storms and thrive in their aftermaths. Those species that cannot, die off- they become extinct.
Many islands temporarily inhabited by successive waves of one culture or another were eventually abandoned due to these once in a century storms, often followed by war and destruction, slave raids between competing peoples and tribes. That left the pigs, dogs and fowl to fend for themselves. These animals were generally composites, descended of progenitors descended from founders that each peoples carried to that specific island. Selective advantages of the wild ancestors of some of these feral castaways would increase the survivability of a few populations. The genetics of those populations would eventually become dominant lineages until humans once again arrived carrying new animals with them. For example, feral pigs derived of wild Indonesian ancestors may have had better equipped teeth that enabled them to forage on specific roots and thus water on more arid islands. The feral pigs derived of wild Vietnamese ancestors, which inhabit much wetter jungle habitat than Indonesian wild pigs, may have lacked this adaptive trait. Those individuals (all or most of mixed ancestry) that lacked the special digging apparatus died out of thirst but their siblings exhibiting the trait survived.
This is just a theoretical example but I think you can appreciate the general point.
Polynesian peoples
Each of the three different seafaring groups contributed something of vital importance to the Polynesian culture.
The Melanesians contributed vitally important crops including taro, banana and yam. They also brought the dog and the Papuan pig.
Melanesians lived primarily on what they cultivated from wild and semi-domestic plants and animals from the forest.
The Micronesians contributed the first domesticated animals with "sea legs" including the Indonesian pig, and the Indonesian Junglefowl(s).
They also contributed crops including the breadfruit and coconut. Micronesians lived largely on what they fished out of the ocean.
Austronesians were more involved with selective breeding of their Vietnamese and Comoros Islands pigs and with their diverse chicken races.
They also propagated medicinal plants for example ginger and turmeric.
The Polynesians accrued the crops, livestock species and specialized breeds; the folklore, astronomical insight and technologies of all three preceding cultures.
I know there is a theory out there that the Micronesians are the babies with the Melanesian and Polynesian older. If we include the Marquesan Islanders as Micronesians, which we must because of their crops and livestock species, we acknowledge that the ancestors of the people of Easter Island, Hawaii perhaps even the Maori came from Marquesas.
This would make the Micronesians the oldest children on the Pacific.
This information is Provided by http://www.backyardchickens.com
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