Bathornis

Bathornis
Temporal range: Late Eocene - Early Miocene 37–20 Ma
Hypothetic life restoration of Bathornis grallator, based on known material and modern seriemas.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cariamiformes
Family: †Bathornithidae
Genus: †Bathornis
Wetmore, 1927
Type species
†Bathornis veredus
Wetmore, 1927
Species

†B. celeripes Wetmore, 1933
†B. cursor Wetmore, 1933
†B. fricki Ostrom, 1961
†B. geographicus Wetmore, 1942
†B. grallator Olson, 1985
†B. minor
†B. veredus Wetmore, 1927
and see text.

Synonyms[1][2]
  • Neocathartes
  • Palaeogyps
  • Palaeocrex

Bathornis ("tall bird"[3][4]) 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.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Farner2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference MayrNoriega2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Common Greek and Latin Roots and Terms". Archived from the original on 2016-05-15. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  4. ^ Wetmore, A. (1927). "Fossil Birds from the Oligocene of Colorado" (PDF). Proceedings of the Colorado Museum of Natural History. 7 (2): 1–14.
  5. ^ Cracraft, J. (1968). "A review of the Bathornithidae (Aves, Gruiformes), with remarks on the relationships of the suborder Cariamae". American Museum Novitates (2326): 1–46. hdl:2246/2536.