Dromaius

Dromaius is a genus of ratite present in Australia. There is one extant species, Dromaius novaehollandiae commonly known as the emu.

In his original 1816 description of the emu, Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot used two generic names; first Dromiceius, then Dromaius a few pages later. It has been a point of contention ever since which is correct; the latter is more correctly formed, but the convention in taxonomy is that the first name given stands, unless it is clearly a typographical error. Most modern publications, including those of the Australian government, use Dromaius, with Dromiceius mentioned as an alternative spelling. Others misspelling synonyms are descript for genus (see synonyms in taxobox). However, the Dromiceius spelling was used by Dale Russell in his 1972 naming of the dinosaur Dromiceiomimus.