Bathornithidae
| Bathornithidae |
|
|---|---|
Scientific classification  |
|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Cariamiformes |
| Family: | Bathornithidae J. Cracraft, 1968 |
| Genera | |
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Bathornithidae is an extinct family of birds from the Eocene to Miocene of North America. Part of Cariamiformes, they are closely related to the still extant seriemas and the also 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 Paleogene cariamiforme fossils are part of this group.[1] Storrs Olson also referred the european Elaphrocnemus to this clade,[2] though it has since been rejected.[3] Conversely, some analysis have instead recovered them as a 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]
Notable is that, uniquely among Cariamiformes, bathornithids (or at least Neocathartes) lack caudally projecting processus supraorbitales, a characteristic otherwise considered a synapomorphy of the group. The implications of this in their phylogeny are yet to be explored.[7]
Biology
Though some forms like Neocathartes and Paracrax wetmorei might have been capable of flight, most taxa were flightless,[8] 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 later reaching heights of over 2 meters.
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.[9]
References
- ↑ Gerald Mayr (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Gerald Mayr (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds
- ↑ Federico L. Agnolin (2009). "Sistemática y Filogenia de las Aves Fororracoideas (Gruiformes, Cariamae)" (PDF). Fundación de Historia Natural Felix de Azara: 1–79.
- ↑ Mayr, G., & Noriega, J. I. A well-preserved partial skeleton of the poorly known early Miocene seriema Noriegavis santacrucensis (Aves, Cariamidae).
- ↑ Mayr, G., & Noriega, J. I. A well-preserved partial skeleton of the poorly known early Miocene seriema Noriegavis santacrucensis (Aves, Cariamidae).
- ↑ We further note that, according to the published figures (Wetmore 1944), Bathornis grallator does not have the caudally projecting processus supraorbitales, which are characteristic of cariamiform birds (contra Agnolín 2009, who coded these processes as present). The published figures of B. grallator are mainly graphic reconstructions and do not allow a critical assessment of some key features of this species. For this reason, bathornithids were not included in the present analysis, and an evaluation of their affinities has to await a revision of the original fossils.[6]
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