Pelargopappus

Pelargopappus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Sagittariidae
Genus: †Pelargopappus
Stejneger, 1885
Species:
†P. magnus
Binomial name
†Pelargopappus magnus

Pelargopappus is an extinct genus of raptor related to the secretarybird that lived in early Miocene France.[1][2] Only one species, the type species P. magnus is officially recognized. A second species, P. schlosseri from the mid-and late Oligocene, was split off into the genus Amphisagittarius.

French paleontologist Cécile Mourer-Chauviré examined the bones of the two genera and concluded that the distal ends of tibiotarsi and tarsometatarsi were the same and that Amphisagittarius should be synonymised with Pelargopappus and supported the placement of the genus in Sagittariidae (rather than the stork family Ciconiidae). She added that Amynoptilon was also a synonym.[1]

  1. ^ a b Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Cheneval, Jacques (1983). "Les Sagittariidae fossiles (Aves, Accipitriformes) de l'Oligocène des phosphorites du Quercy et du Miocène inférieur de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy". Geobios. 16 (4): 443–459. Bibcode:1983Geobi..16..443M. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(83)80104-1.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference fossilworks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).