Sagittariidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

raptor Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on ...

with one living

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

—the

secretarybird The secretarybird or secretary bird (''Sagittarius serpentarius'') is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region. John Frederick Miller describe ...

(''Sagittarius serpentarius'') native to Africa. This single extant species, has effected the fossil record of the group by ‘pulling’ the temporal range of the family to the present, an artifact called the Pull of the Recent. German naturalists

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate ...

and

Gustav Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and co ...

established the taxon name as a subfamily—Sagittariinae—in 1870. Although their term postdated Gypogeranidae of Vigors (1825) and Serpentariidae of

Selys Longchamps Selys Longchamps is a Belgian baronial noble family. History In 1656, Michel de Selys, former mayor of Liège, received at the same time as his brothers Hubert and Godefroid, a nobiliary title from Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor. His grandson, ...

(1842), the genus name ''Sagittarius'' (described in 1783) had priority over ''Gypogeranus''

Illiger Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (19 November 1775 – 10 May 1813) was a German entomologist and zoologist. Illiger was the son of a merchant in Braunschweig. He studied under the entomologist Johann Hellwig, and later worked on the zoological coll ...

, 1811 and ''Serpentarius'' Cuvier, 1798. A genus ''

Pelargopappus ''Pelargopappus'' is an extinct genus of raptor related to the secretarybird that lived in early Miocene France. Only one species, the type species ''P. magnus'' is officially recognized. A second species, ''P. schlosseri'' from the mid-and lat ...

'' is known from Miocene deposits in France. The genus '' Amanuensis'' is known from Miocene deposits in Africa.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2346527 Bird families Birds of prey Oligocene first appearances Accipitriformes