With 34 species, Australia possesses over half of the world's remaining alvarezsaurs (popularly called "Alvies"). This bizarre group of theropods reached it's evolutionary zenith during the early Cenozoic, but subsequently vanished from many parts of the world, perhaps through competition with ground-running true birds. Most extant species are small, cryptic forest and woodland animals. Larger forms can only be found in Australia and New
Guinea.

NEOALVAREZSAURIDAE
    The neoalvarezsaurids actually labor under a misleading name, as they are, anatomically, the more conservative of the two alvarezsaur sub-clades.  These creatures are long-legged, long-necked creatures superficially similar to the ratites of Home-Earth and the ornithomimosaurs of the past.

SAMPLE TAXA:

• Great crested alvie
• Fan-tailed alvie
• Papuan muppet

• Helmeted alvie (Gallionyx personatis)
• Blood-tailed alvie (Gallionyx erythrocaudis)
• Bleeding-heart alvie (Gallionyx hematis)
• Darker alvie (Gallionyx stygius)
• Gold alvie (Gallionyx minimus)
• Choo's forester (Sylva chooi)
• Red-faced forester (Sylva rubifacies)
• Striped forester (Sylva striatis)

GALLIONICHIDAE
    Comprising 80 percent of alvarezsaur species, Gallionichidae is easily the more successful of the two alvarezsaur sub-clades.  Rarely more than a meter long (although one species, the giant blood-tail of New Zealand, may grow to a length of two meters) these little animals hunt for invertebrates and small mammals and reptiles along the ground.   Some species show herbivorous tendencies.

SAMPLE TAXA:

• Blood-tailed Alvie

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