Cygnus falconeri is an extinctspecies of very large swan known from Middle Pleistocene-aged deposits from Malta and Sicily. Its dimensions are described as exceeding those of the living mute swan by one-third,[2] which would give a bill-to-tail length of about 190–210 cm (75–83 in) (based on 145–160 cm for C. olor[3]). By comparison to the bones of living swans, it can be estimated that it weighed around 16 kg (35 lb) and had a wingspan of about 3 m (9.8 ft).[4][5][6] Due to its size, it may have been flightless.[7] Its remains on Malta are associated with dwarf elephants (the smaller Palaeoloxodon falconeri and the larger Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis), giant dormice (Leithia, including the largest dormouse ever, the rabbit-sized L. melitensis and the smaller L. cartei and Maltamys gollcheri), the giant tortoise Solitudo robusta and other birds, including raptors and members of the crane genus Grus.[8] Some remains of the species are displayed Għar Dalam museum in Birżebbuġa, Malta.
^Snow, D. W.; Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic (Concise ed.). OUP. ISBN0-19-854099-X..
^Northcote, E. M. (2008). "Size, Form and Habit of the Extinct Maltese Swan Cygnus falconeri". Ibis. 124 (2): 148–158. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1982.tb03753.x.
^Watanabe, J.; Matsuoka, H. (2015). "Flightless diving duck (Aves, Anatidae) from the Pleistocene of Shiriya, northeast Japan". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (6): e994745. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.994745.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
^Watanabe, J. (2017). "Quantitative discrimination of flightlessness in fossil Anatidae from skeletal proportions". The Auk. 134 (3): 672–695. doi:10.1642/auk-17-23.1. hdl:2433/227150.
