Bathornithidae

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Bathornithidae
Temporal range:
Ma
Depiction of Bathornis grallator.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cariamiformes
Family: †Bathornithidae
J. Cracraft, 1968
Genera

Bathornithidae is an

seriemas and the extinct Phorusrhacidae
. They were likely similar in habits, being terrestrial, long-legged predators, some of which attained massive sizes.

It has been suggested that most, if not all, North American

polyphyletic group, with Bathornis and kin being sister taxa to phorusrhacids while Paracrax is rendered closer to modern seriemas,[4] though this assessment is heavily debated.[5]

The most recent consensus is that Bathornithidae is relegated exclusively to

phorusrhacids, as well as a possible European specimen. Paracrax and Eutreptornis are understood to be odd taxa whose cariamiform affinities are not fully resolved.[6]

Biology

Though some forms like Paracrax wetmorei might have been capable of flight, most taxa were flightless,[7] constituting examples of flightless birds in mammal dominated environments. Paracrax gigantea, Paracrax antiqua and the larger Bathornis species in particular might have occupied macropredatory niches akin to that of phorusrhacids, the former and latter reaching heights of over 2 m (6 ft 7 in)

Bathornis proper appears to have favoured wetland environments. It was a highly diverse genus, spanning a wide variety of species at various sizes, from the Eocene to the Miocene.[8]

References

  1. ^ Gerald Mayr (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds
  2. ^ Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X.A.I.b. The Tangle of the Bathornithidae. In: Farner, D.; King, J. & Parkes, K. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 146–150. Academic Press, New York.
  3. ^ Gerald Mayr (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds
  4. ^ Federico L. Agnolin (2009). "Sistemática y Filogenia de las Aves Fororracoideas (Gruiformes, Cariamae)" (PDF). Fundación de Historia Natural Felix de Azara: 1–79.
  5. ^ Mayr, G., & Noriega, J. I. A well-preserved partial skeleton of the poorly known early Miocene seriema Noriegavis santacrucensis (Aves, Cariamidae). Acta palaeontologica Polonica, 60(3):589-598.
  6. S2CID 88936361
    .
  7. hdl:2246/2536
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-253-01608-9
    .
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