''Phasmagyps'', is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

New World vulture The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widesprea ...

in the family

Cathartidae The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widespre ...

, known from one Oligocene fossil found in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. The genus contains a single described species, ''Phasmagyps patritus'' which is possibly the oldest

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

known, though its placement in the family Cathartidae has been questioned.

History and classification

''Phasmagyps'' is known from a single fragmentary fossil bone, the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

housed in the paleontology collections of the Colorado Museum of Natural History in Boulder, Colorado and given the number 1078. In 1923 Philip Reinheinter collected the specimen from the

Weld County Weld County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 328,981. The county seat is Greeley. Weld County comprises the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Denver ...

''Trigonias'' quarry, possibly a fossilized watering hole. The quarry worked sedimentary rocks that are positioned approximately above the contact between the

Pierre Shale The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from Pembina Valley in Canada to New Mexico. The Pierre Shale was described by Meek and Hayden in 1862 in th ...

and the

Chadron Formation Chadron Formation is a rock formation in North Dakota, South Dakota, northwestern Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming. It is named after the town of Chadron, Nebraska Chadron ( ) is a city and the county seat of Dawes County, in the state of Nebras ...

, thus dating the fossils to the Lower Chadronian. The fossil was first studied by the American paleontologist and ornithologist

Alexander Wetmore Frank Alexander Wetmore (June 18, 1886 – December 7, 1978) was an American ornithologist and avian paleontologist. He was the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Early life and education The son of a Country Physician, Frank Ale ...

; his 1927

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

of the new genus and species was published in the journal ''Proceedings of the Colorado Museum of Natural History''. In the description, Wetmore did not give any

etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...

explanations for the genus and species names, though ''phasma'' is Latin and Greek for a phantom or apparition and ''

Gyps ''Gyps'' is a genus of Old World vultures that was proposed by Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. Its members are sometimes known as griffon vultures. ''Gyps'' vultures have a slim head, a long slender neck with downy feathers, and a ruff aroun ...

'' identifies the genus as a vulture. The fossil was reexamined in the early 1980s by avian paleontologist Storrs L. Olson. In a 1985 paper he gives a brief comment on the genus. He stated without going into specific details, that while the fossil is superficially similar to those of Cathartidae members, however it possesses notable features which are different and as such he regarded the position of the genus as problematic. In their 2005 description of a Peruvian fossil, Marcelo Stucchi and Steven Emslie noted the disputed nature of ''Phasmagyps'', but maintained the placement in Cathartidae and noted the genus as the oldest member of the family in the Americas.

Description

When first described by Wetmore, ''Phasmagyps'' was described as being one third larger than the modern

Black vulture The black vulture (''Coragyps atratus''), also known as the American black vulture, Mexican vulture, zopilote, urubu, or gallinazo, is a bird in the New World vulture family whose range extends from the northeastern United States to Peru, Cen ...

, ''Coragyps atratus''. This is contradicted by James Ducey's 1992 paper which lists ''Phasmagyps'' as being "not much larger than the Black Vulture". The single known fossil is a partial upper leg bone, specifically the lower section of the right

tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These s ...

. As preserved, the largest diameter of the bone is around the outer condyle, and the width across the condyles is . The diameter at the smallest area of the preserved bone shaft is .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7181027 Cathartidae New World vultures Paleogene birds of North America Oligocene birds Fossil taxa described in 1927 Taxa named by Alexander Wetmore Prehistoric bird genera