Sagittariidae

Sagittariidae
Temporal range: Middle Oligocene–recent, 29–0 Ma[1]
Sagittarius serpentarius
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Sagittariidae
Finsch & Hartlaub, 1870[2][3]
Genera

At least 4 genera (see text)

Sagittariidae is a family of raptor with one living species—the secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius) native to Africa—and a few fossil taxa.[4][5][6]

This single extant species has affected 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.[6][relevant?]

German naturalists Otto Finsch and Gustav Hartlaub established the taxon name as a subfamily—Sagittariinae—in 1870. Although their term postdated Gypogeranidae of Vigors (1825) and Serpentariidae of Selys Longchamps (1842), the genus name Sagittarius (described in 1783) had priority over Gypogeranus Illiger, 1811 and Serpentarius Cuvier, 1798.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mourer-Chauviré and Cheneval 1983 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Finsch, Otto; Hartlaub, Gustav (1870). Die Vogel Ost-Africas: Baron Carl Claus von Deer Decken's Reisen in Ost-Africa (in German). Leipzig: C. F. Winter. p. 93.
  3. ^ Bock, Walter J. (1994). "History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 222: 1–236 [112, 133]. hdl:2246/830.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference fossilworks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Namibiavis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Sahney, Sarda; Benton, Michael (2017). "The impact of the Pull of the Recent on the fossil record of tetrapods" (PDF). Evolutionary Ecology Research. 18: 7–23.