Phorusrhacidae

"Terror Bird" redirects here. For the studio album, see Terrorbird.
Phorusrhacidae
Temporal range: Middle Eocene – Late Pleistocene[1][2]
~43–0.1 Ma
Reconstructed skeleton of Titanis walleri, Florida Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cariamiformes
Superfamily: †Phorusrhacoidea
Ameghino, 1889
Family: †Phorusrhacidae
Ameghino, 1889[3]
Type species
†Phorusrhacos longissimus
Ameghino, 1887
Subfamilies
  • †Phsyornithinae
  • †Mesembriornithinae
  • †Patagornithinae
  • †Phorusrhacinae
  • †Psilopterinae
Synonyms
Family synonymy
  • Pelecyornidae Ameghino, 1891
  • Brontornithidae Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
  • Darwinornithidae Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
  • Stereornithidae Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
  • Patagornithidae Mercerat, 1897
  • Hermosiornidae Rovereto, 1914
  • Psilopteridae Dolgopol de Saez, 1927
  • Devincenziidae Kraglievich, 1932
  • Mesembriorniidae Kraglievich, 1932

Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct family of large carnivorous, mostly flightless birds[a] that were among the largest apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era. Their definitive fossil records range from the Middle Eocene to the Late Pleistocene around 43 to 0.1 million years ago,[1][2] though some specimens suggest that they were present since the Early Eocene.

They ranged in height from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft). One of the largest specimens from the Early Pleistocene of Uruguay, possibly belonging to Devincenzia, would have weighed up to 350 kilograms (770 lb).[5][6] Their closest modern-day relatives are believed to be the 80-centimetre-tall (31 in) seriemas. Titanis walleri, one of the larger species, is known from Texas and Florida in North America. This makes the phorusrhacids the only known large South American predator to migrate north in the Great American Interchange that followed the formation of the Isthmus of Panama land bridge (the main pulse of the interchange began about 2.6 Ma ago; Titanis at 5 Ma was an early northward migrant).[7]

It was once believed that T. walleri became extinct in North America around the time of the arrival of humans,[8] but subsequent datings of Titanis fossils provided no evidence for their survival after 1.8 Ma.[9] However, reports from Uruguay of new findings of phorusrachids such as a specimen of Psilopterus dating to 96,040 ± 6,300 years ago would imply that phorusrhacids survived in South America until the late Pleistocene.[b]

Phorusrhacids may have even made their way into Africa and Europe, if the genus Lavocatavis from Algeria and Eleutherornis from France and Switzerland are included.[10][11] However, the taxonomic placement of both taxa within phorusrhacids are considered highly questionable, and their remains are too fragmentary to be included in phylogenetic analyses.[12][13][14] Possible specimens have also been discovered from the La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctica, suggesting that this group had a wider geographical range in the Paleogene.[15]

The closely related bathornithids occupied a similar ecological niche in North America across the Eocene to Early Miocene; some, like Paracrax, were similar in size to the largest phorusrhacids.[16][17] At least one analysis recovers Bathornis as sister taxa to phorusrhacids, on the basis of shared features in the jaws and coracoid,[18] though this has been seriously contested, as these might have evolved independently for the same carnivorous, flightless lifestyle.[19]

  1. ^ a b c Acosta Hospitaleche, C.; Jones, W. (2024). "Insights on the oldest terror bird (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) from the Eocene of Argentina". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology: 1–9. doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2304592. S2CID 267475903.
  2. ^ a b c Jones, W.; Rinderknecht, A.; Alvarenga, H.; Montenegro, F.; Ubilla, M. (2017). "The last terror birds (Aves, Phorusrhacidae): new evidence from the late Pleistocene of Uruguay". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 92 (2): 365–372. doi:10.1007/s12542-017-0388-y. S2CID 134344096.
  3. ^ Ameghino, F (1889). "Contribuición al conocimiento de los mamíferos fósiles de la República Argentina" [Contribution to the knowledge of fossil mammals in the Argentine Republic]. Actas Academia Nacional Ciencias de Córdoba (in Spanish). 6: 1–1028.
  4. ^ Degrange, F.J. (2015). "Hind limb morphometry of terror birds (Aves, Cariamiformes, Phorusrhacidae): functional implications for substrate preferences and locomotor lifestyle". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 106 (4): 257–276. Bibcode:2015EESTR.106..257D. doi:10.1017/S1755691016000256. hdl:11336/44728.
  5. ^ Alvarenga, H. M. F.; Höfling, E. (2003). "Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes)". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 43 (4): 55–91. doi:10.1590/S0031-10492003000400001.
  6. ^ Blanco, Rudemar Ernesto; Jones, Washington W (2005). "Terror birds on the run: a mechanical model to estimate its maximum running speed". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 272 (1574): 1769–1773. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3133. PMC 1559870. PMID 16096087.
  7. ^ Woodburne, M. O. (2010-07-14). "The Great American Biotic Interchange: Dispersals, Tectonics, Climate, Sea Level and Holding Pens". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 17 (4): 245–264. doi:10.1007/s10914-010-9144-8. PMC 2987556. PMID 21125025.
  8. ^ Baskin, J. A. (1995). "The giant flightless bird Titanis walleri (Aves: Phorusrhacidae) from the Pleistocene coastal plain of South Texas". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (4): 842–844. Bibcode:1995JVPal..15..842B. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011266.
  9. ^ MacFadden, Bruce J.; Labs-Hochstein, Joann; Hulbert, Richard C.; Baskin, Jon A. (2007). "Revised age of the late Neogene terror bird (Titanis) in North America during the Great American Interchange". Geology. 35 (2): 123–126. Bibcode:2007Geo....35..123M. doi:10.1130/G23186A.1. S2CID 67762754.
  10. ^ Mourer-Chauviré, C.; Tabuce, R.; Mahboubi, M’hammed; Adaci, Mohammed; Bensalah, Mustapha (2011). "A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa". Naturwissenschaften. 98 (10): 815–823. Bibcode:2011NW.....98..815M. doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5. PMID 21874523. S2CID 19805809.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Eleutherornis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mayr2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mayr2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference LGO24 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Acosta Hospitaleche, Carolina; Jones, Washington (2024). "Were terror birds the apex continental predators of Antarctica? New findings in the early Eocene of Seymour Island". Palaeontologia Electronica. 27 (1): 1–31. doi:10.26879/1340.
  16. ^ Benton, R. C.; Terry, D. O. Jr.; Evanoff, E.; McDonald, H. G. (25 May 2015). The White River Badlands: Geology and Paleontology. Indiana University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0253016089.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Agnolin, Federico L. (2009). Sistemática y Filogenia de las Aves Fororracoideas (Gruiformes, Cariamae) [Systematics and Phylogeny of Phororrhacoid Birds (Gruiformes, Cariamae)] (in Spanish). Fundación de Historia Natural Felix de Azara. pp. 1–79.
  19. ^ Mayr, G.; Noriega, J. (2013). "A well-preserved partial skeleton of the poorly known early Miocene seriema Noriegavis santacrucensis (Aves, Cariamidae)". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.00011.2013. hdl:11336/41730.


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