In addition, some goose-like birds are known from subfossil remains found on the Hawaiian Islands. The aptly named Anser atavus (meaning "progenitor goose") from some 12 million years ago had even more plesiomorphies in common with swans. Either these or, more probably, the goose-like coscoroba swan is the closest living relative of the true geese.įossils of true geese are hard to assign to genus all that can be said is that their fossil record, particularly in North America, is dense and comprehensively documents many different species of true geese that have been around since about 10 million years ago in the Miocene. Two genera of geese are only tentatively placed in the Anserinae they may belong to the shelducks or form a subfamily on their own: Cereopsis, the Cape Barren goose, and Cnemiornis, the prehistoric New Zealand goose. The two living genera of true geese are: Anser, grey geese and white geese, such as the greylag goose and snow goose, and Branta, black geese, such as the Canada goose. True geese and their relativesīarnacle geese ( Branta leucopsis) in Naantali, Finland This term also gave Lithuanian: žąsìs, Irish: gé (goose, from Old Irish géiss), Latin: anser, Spanish: ganso, Ancient Greek: χήν ( khēn), Dutch: gans, Albanian: gatë swans), Finnish: hanhi, Avestan zāō, Polish: gęś, Romanian: gâscă / gânsac, Ukrainian: гуска / гусак ( huska / husak), Russian: гусыня / гусь ( gusyna / gus), Czech: husa, and Persian: غاز ( ghāz). In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandres (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, and gosling, respectively), Frisian goes, gies and guoske, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās.
The word "goose" is a direct descendant of, *ghans.
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