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Phorusrhacidae
Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were one of the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their conventionally accepted temporal range covers from 62 to 0.1 million years ( Ma) ago. They ranged in height from . Their closest modern-day relatives are believed to be the seriemas. ''Titanis walleri'', one of the larger species, is known from Texas and Florida in North America. This makes the phorusrhacids the only known large South American predator to migrate north in the Great American Interchange that followed the formation of the Isthmus of Panama land bridge (the main pulse of the interchange began about 2.6 Ma ago; ''Titanis'' at 5 Ma was an early northward migrant). It was once believed that ''T. walleri'' became extinct in North America around the time of the arrival of humans, but subsequent datings of ''Titanis'' fossils provided no evidence for their surv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanis
''Titanis'' was an extinct genus of giant flightless terror birds that inhabited North America during the early Pliocene to early Pleistocene epochs. The generic name, ''Titanis'', refers to the titans, Ancient Greek gods that preceded the Twelve Olympians, in allusion to the bird's size. The specific name, ''T. walleri'', honors the holotype's collector, Benjamin I. Waller, an avocational underwater archaeologist. ''Titanis'' was thought to be carnivorous and most likely preyed on the many small mammals of the time period. This giant flightless bird was one of the most efficient predators of its time in North America. Description ''Titanis'' was approximately tall and around in weight. When compared with other phorusrhacids, the examined material indicates a large variation in the size of ''Titanis'', perhaps indicating strong sexual dimorphism. It had long, agile legs, and three-toed feet with long talons. It could undoubtedly run at high speeds when hunting. Though its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psilopterus
''Psilopterus'' (Greek for "bare wing") is an extinct genus of phorusrhacid ("terror bird") from the Middle Oligocene to possibly the Late Pleistocene of Argentina and Uruguay. Compared to other phorusrhacids, members of the genus are both relatively gracile and diminutive, and include the smallest known species of terror bird: with the head raised ''P. bachmanni'' was in height and weighed about , while the largest members of the genus were only about . The birds resemble the modern cariama (''Cariama cristata''), except with a heavier build and considerably smaller wings. The strong morphological similarity between the claws of the predatory cariama and ''Psilopterus'', both of which are sharp, curved, and laterally compressed, may indicate they were used to strike prey. In contrast to the other, larger terror birds, Tonni and Tambussi also suggested ''Psilopterus'' could use their claws to climb trees, and could even fly, but this has been rejected in more recent literature. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great American Interchange
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which land and freshwater fauna migrated from North America via Central America to South America and vice versa, as the volcanic Isthmus of Panama rose up from the sea floor and bridged the formerly separated continents. Although earlier dispersals had occurred, probably over water, the migration accelerated dramatically about 2.7 million years ( Ma) ago during the Piacenzian age. It resulted in the joining of the Neotropic (roughly South American) and Nearctic (roughly North American) biogeographic realms definitively to form the Americas. The interchange is visible from observation of both biostratigraphy and nature (neontology). Its most dramatic effect is on the zoogeography of mammals, but it also gave an opportunity for reptiles, amphibia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phorusrhacos Longissimus
''Phorusrhacos'' ( ) is an extinct genus of giant flightless terror birds that inhabited Argentina during the Miocene epoch. ''Phorusrhacos'' was one of the dominant land predators in South America at the time it existed. It is thought to have lived in woodlands and grasslands. Discovery and naming Remains are known from several localities in the Santa Cruz Formation and Monte León Formation in the Santa Cruz Province, of Argentina. Among the bones found in the strata of the Santa Cruz Formations (now considered as mainly of mid-Miocene date) was the piece of a mandible which Florentino Ameghino discovered in early 1887 and the same year at first described as that of an edentate mammal which he named ''Phorusrhacos longissimus''. The generic name is derived from Greek -φόρος, (-''phoros''), an element meaning "bearer" in word combinations, and ῥάκος, (''rhakos''), "rag" or "wrinkle", probably in reference to the wrinkled jaw surface. When the original derivation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleutherornis
''Eleutherornis cotei'' is a medium-sized (estimated to be 1.5 meters tall) extinct flightless predatory bird, in the family Phorusrhacidae or "terror birds" whose remains have been found in Middle Eocene aged strata from France and Switzerland. Discovery The partial remains of this bird were discovered in France near Listeu, a municipality of the metropolis of Lyon and Switzerland in Egerkingen in the canton of Solothurn. They were reviewed and described in 2013 by Delphine Angst and his colleagues under the name of Eleutherornnis. Description It is a medium-sized phorusrhacid, with a height of about 1.50 meters that shows a combination of basal and derivative characters. Tarchlea of tarsometatarsus II is enlarged in its middle part as in psilopterines, while the pre-acetabulary of the ilium is more compressed laterally and more ventilated with neural spines of the synsacral vertebrae than in psilopterines, and thus recalls more the more evolved phorusrchacids. Geograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seriema
The seriemas are the sole living members of the small bird family Cariamidae, which is also the only surviving lineage of the order Cariamiformes. Once believed to be related to cranes, they have been placed near the falcons, parrots and passerines, as well as the extinct Phorusrhacidae (terror birds).Hackett, S. J. ''et al''. (2008) A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History. ''Science'' 320(5884):1763–1768 10.1126/science.1157704 The seriemas are large, long-legged territorial birds that range from in length. They live in grasslands, savanna, dry woodland and open forests of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. There are two species of seriemas, the red-legged seriema (''Cariama cristata'') and the black-legged seriema (''Chunga burmeisteri'').del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors). (1996) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks''. Lynx Edicions. Names for these birds in the Tupian languages are variously ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flightless Bird
Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7 g). The largest (both heaviest and tallest) flightless bird, which is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich (2.7 m, 156 kg). Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic duck, have lost the ability to fly for extended periods, although their ancestral species, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are capable of extended flight. A few particularly bred birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become totally flightless as a result of selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much for the bird's wings to support in flight. Flightlessness has evolved in many different birds independently, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bathornithidae
Bathornithidae is an extinct family of birds from the Eocene to Miocene of North America. Part of Cariamiformes, they are related to the still extant seriemas and the also extinct Phorusrhacidae. They were likely similar in habits, being terrestrial, long-legged predators, some of which attained massive sizes. It has been suggested that most, if not all, North American Paleogene cariamiforme fossils are part of this group. Storrs Olson also referred the European ''Elaphrocnemus'' to this clade, though it has since been rejected. Conversely, some analysis have instead recovered them as a polyphyletic group, with ''Bathornis'' and kin being sister taxa to phorusrhacids while ''Paracrax'' is rendered closer to modern seriemas, though this assessment is heavily debated.Mayr, G., & Noriega, J. I. A well-preserved partial skeleton of the poorly known early Miocene seriema ''Noriegavis santacrucensis'' (Aves, Cariamidae). ''Acta palaeontologica Polonica'', 60(3):589-598. The most recent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lavocatavis
''Lavocatavis'' is an extinct genus of phorusrhacoid or "terror bird" from the Eocene of Algeria. A fossilized femur was described from the Glib Zegdou Formation in 2011 and is the only known specimen of ''Lavocatavis''. The species was designated ''L. africana''. Discovery and naming The holotype of ''Lavocatavis'', UM HGL 51-55, consists of an almost complete right femur. It is reasonably well preserved in the middle, but fragmentary at both ends. It originates from layer HGL 51 of the Glib Zegdou Formation of Algeria. The generic epithet (meaning "Lavocat's bird") was named in honor of René Lavocat, the person who first reported the earth layer of the holotype. Paleobiogeography The oldest phorusrhacoids are from South America and Antarctica, suggesting that the ancestors of ''Lavocatavis'' migrated into Africa from the west. During the Eocene, the Atlantic Ocean separated South America from Africa by at least , ruling out a land migration. For a flightless terrestrial bir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Bridge
In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and Colonisation (biology), colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea levels fall, exposing shallow, previously submerged sections of continental shelf; or when new land is created by plate tectonics; or occasionally when the sea floor rises due to post-glacial rebound after an ice age. Prominent examples * Adam's Bridge (also known as Rama Setu), connecting India and Sri Lanka * The Bass Strait#Discovery and exploration, Bassian Plain, which linked Australia and Tasmania * The Beringia, Bering Land Bridge (aka Beringia), which intermittently connected Alaska (Northern America) with Siberia (North Asia) as sea levels rose and fell under the effect of ice ages * East Asia’s former unnamed landmass, During the last Ice Age, which ended approximately 15,000 years ago, Japanese Archipela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society Of Vertebrate Paleontology
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members internationally and holds annual scientific conferences in North America and elsewhere. It is organized for educational and scientific purposes with a mission to "advance the science of vertebrate paleontology and to serve the common interests and facilitate the cooperation of all persons concerned with the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals, as well as field occurrence, collection, and study of fossil vertebrates and the stratigraphy of the beds in which they are found." SVP is also concerned with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites. SVP publications include the ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'', the ''SVP Memoir Series'', the ''News Bulletin'', the''Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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