|
Masillaraptorid
Masillaraptoridae is an extinct family of stem-group falconiform birds from the Eocene of Europe. They are noted for their relatively long legs. Two genera have been named: '' Danielsraptor'', from the London Clay of England, and ''Masillaraptor'', from Messel Pit in Germany. Description Masillaraptorids had long legs, which may indicate that they had a terrestrial lifestyle, foraging on the ground similar to modern caracaras. They had large pygostyles, suggesting that they would have likely had long tail feathers. This, in addition to their long ulnae, suggest that they were capable of well-developed flight. Their beaks are similar to those of extinct phorusrhacids and extant caracaras. Classification The cladogram below displays the phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masillaraptor
''Masillaraptor'' is an extinct genus of masillaraptorid, a groups basal falconiforms, from the Middle Eocene Messel Pit, Germany. It is a long-legged relative of the living falcons. Known species Only one species of ''Masillaraptor'' is known: ''M. parvunguis'' Etymology ''Masillaraptor'' comes from the Latin word ''Masilla'', which is the old name for the town of Messel, and ''raptor'' is a New Latin suffix used to indicate a predator (from ''rapere, to catch'') and in English it means ''bird of prey''. Specific epithet ''parvunguis'' is also Latin, coming from the word ''parvus'' which means small and feeble, while ''unguis'' means claw. The name refers to the fact that the specimen's claws are small in comparison to those of other raptors. Characteristics The genus ''Masillaraptor'' is different from all other known avian taxa. It possesses a combination of characters that distinguishes it from all others. 1. The beak is almost as long as the cranium itself, with eq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masillaraptor Parvunguis
''Masillaraptor'' is an extinct genus of masillaraptorid, a groups basal falconiforms, from the Middle Eocene Messel Pit, Germany. It is a long-legged relative of the living falcons. Known species Only one species of ''Masillaraptor'' is known: ''M. parvunguis'' Etymology ''Masillaraptor'' comes from the Latin word ''Masilla'', which is the old name for the town of Messel, and ''raptor'' is a New Latin suffix used to indicate a predator (from ''rapere, to catch'') and in English it means ''bird of prey''. Specific epithet ''parvunguis'' is also Latin, coming from the word ''parvus'' which means small and feeble, while ''unguis'' means claw. The name refers to the fact that the specimen's claws are small in comparison to those of other raptors. Characteristics The genus ''Masillaraptor'' is different from all other known avian taxa. It possesses a combination of characters that distinguishes it from all others. 1. The beak is almost as long as the cranium itself, with equ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masillaraptor Restoration
''Masillaraptor'' is an extinct genus of masillaraptorid, a groups basal falconiforms, from the Middle Eocene Messel Pit, Germany. It is a long-legged relative of the living falcons. Known species Only one species of ''Masillaraptor'' is known: ''M. parvunguis'' Etymology ''Masillaraptor'' comes from the Latin word ''Masilla'', which is the old name for the town of Messel, and ''raptor'' is a New Latin suffix used to indicate a predator (from ''rapere, to catch'') and in English it means ''bird of prey''. Specific epithet ''parvunguis'' is also Latin, coming from the word ''parvus'' which means small and feeble, while ''unguis'' means claw. The name refers to the fact that the specimen's claws are small in comparison to those of other raptors. Characteristics The genus ''Masillaraptor'' is different from all other known avian taxa. It possesses a combination of characters that distinguishes it from all others. 1. The beak is almost as long as the cranium itself, with eq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danielsraptor
''Danielsraptor'' (meaning "Michael Daniels's thief") is an extinct genus of masillaraptorid bird from the Early Eocene (Ypresian) Walton Member of the London Clay Formation in Essex, United Kingdom. The genus contains a single species, ''D. phorusrhacoides'', known from a partial skeleton. Discovery and naming The ''Danielsraptor'' fossil material was discovered in layers of the London Clay Formation (Walton Member), dated to the early Ypresian. This formation is located near Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, England. The holotype, NMS.Z.2021.40.12, was collected in 1991 by Michael Daniels (who the taxon is named after). This specimen consists of a partial skeleton including the skull, vertebrae, fragmentary wing bones, elements of the pectoral girdle, pelvis, the majority of the legs, and various bone fragments still partially enclosed in matrix. An additional referred specimen, NMS.Z.2021.40.13, was found by Daniels in 1986. This specimen includes a partial sternum, right corac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danielsraptor Phorusrhacoides
''Danielsraptor'' (meaning "Michael Daniels's thief") is an extinct genus of masillaraptorid bird from the Early Eocene (Ypresian) Walton Member of the London Clay Formation in Essex, United Kingdom. The genus contains a single species, ''D. phorusrhacoides'', known from a partial skeleton. Discovery and naming The ''Danielsraptor'' fossil material was discovered in layers of the London Clay Formation (Walton Member), dated to the early Ypresian. This formation is located near Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, England. The holotype, NMS.Z.2021.40.12, was collected in 1991 by Michael Daniels (who the taxon is named after). This specimen consists of a partial skeleton including the skull, vertebrae, fragmentary wing bones, elements of the pectoral girdle, pelvis, the majority of the legs, and various bone fragments still partially enclosed in matrix. An additional referred specimen, NMS.Z.2021.40.13, was found by Daniels in 1986. This specimen includes a partial sternum, right cor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falconiformes
The order Falconiformes () is represented by the extant family Falconidae (falcons and caracaras) and a handful of enigmatic Paleogene species. Traditionally, the other bird of prey families Cathartidae (New World vultures and condors), Sagittariidae (secretarybird), Pandionidae (ospreys), Accipitridae (hawks) were classified in Falconiformes. A variety of comparative genome analysis published since 2008, however, found that falcons are part of a clade of birds called Australaves, which also includes seriemas, parrots and passerines. Within Australaves falcons are more closely related to the parrot-passerine clade (Psittacopasserae), which together they form the clade Eufalconimorphae. The hawks and vultures occupy a basal branch in the clade Afroaves in their own clade Accipitrimorphae, closer to owls and woodpeckers. See below cladogram of Telluraves relationships based on Braun & Kimball (2021): The fossil record of Falconiformes ''sensu stricto'' is poorly documented. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cariamiformes
Cariamiformes (or Cariamae) is an order of primarily flightless birds that has existed for over 60 million years. The group includes the family Cariamidae (seriemas) and the extinct families Phorusrhacidae, Bathornithidae, Idiornithidae and Ameghinornithidae. Though traditionally considered a suborder within Gruiformes, both morphological and genetic studies show that it belongs to a separate group of birds, Australaves, whose other living members are Falconidae, Psittaciformes and Passeriformes. This proposal has been confirmed by a 2014 study of whole genomes of 48 representative bird species. This analysis shows that the Cariamiformes are basal among extant Australaves, while falcons are next most basal; in combination with the fact that the two most basal branches of Afroaves (New World vultures plus Accipitriformes, and owls) are also predatory, it is inferred that the common ancestor of 'core landbirds' (Telluraves) was an apex predator. However, some researchers like Da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caracara Plancus
The crested caracara (''Caracara plancus'') is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found from the southern United States through Central and South America to Tierra del Fuego. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Polyborus''. Description The crested caracara has a total length of and a wingspan of . Its weight is , averaging in seven birds from Tierra del Fuego.''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses, 2nd Edition'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (2008), . Individuals from the colder southern part of its range average larger than those from tropical regions (as predicted by Bergmann's rule) and are the largest type of caracara. In fact, they are the second-largest species of falcon in the world by mean body mass, second only to the gyrfalcon. The cap, belly, thighs, most of the wings, and tail tip are dark brownish, the auriculars (feathers surrounding the ear), throat, and nape are whitish-buff, and the chest, neck, mantle, back, upper tail coverts, crissum ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope Carbon-13, 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope Carbon-12, 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Popigai impact structure, Siberia and in what is now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bathornis
''Bathornis'' ("tall bird") is an extinct lineage of birds related to modern day seriemas, that lived in North America about 37–20 million years ago. Like the closely related and also extinct phorusrhacids, it was a flightless predator, occupying predatory niches in environments classically considered to be dominated by mammals. It was a highly diverse and successful genus, spanning a large number of species that occurred from the Priabonian Eocene to the Burdigalian Miocene epochs. Description Though most material is highly incomplete, ''Bathornis'' is nonetheless known from a variety of skeletal elements: hindlimbs (most commonly tarso-metatarsals), forelimb elements (especially humeri), pelvises and skulls.Federico L. Agnolin (2009)"Sistemática y Filogenia de las Aves Fororracoideas (Gruiformes, Cariamae)"(PDF). Fundación de Historia Natural Felix de Azara: 1–79. ''Bathornis grallator'' is known from a mostly complete skeleton, including the skull, bearing a proportional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynamopterus
''Dynamopterus velox'' is a prehistoric bird, known from a single large right humerus recovered in France. The humerus shares anatomical features with living cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...s (though it is much larger). It has also been classified in the suborder Cariamae in the Gruiformes. References Oligocene birds Cenozoic birds of Europe Paleogene France Fossils of France Quercy Phosphorites Formation {{Paleo-bird-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_white_background.jpg "Click for more on -> Cariamiformes")
