Jump to content

Paraphysornis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BrownHairedGirl (talk | contribs) at 02:43, 14 July 2019 (remove links to deleted portals). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Paraphysornis
Temporal range: Late Oligocene-Early Miocene (Deseadan)
~23 Ma
Reconstructed skeleton
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cariamiformes
Family: Phorusrhacidae
Genus: Paraphysornis
Alvarenga, 1993
Species:
P. brasiliensis
Binomial name
Paraphysornis brasiliensis
(Alvarenga, 1982)
Synonyms

Physornis brasiliensis
Alvarenga, 1982

Paraphysornis is an extinct genus of giant flightless predatory birds of the family Phorusrhacidae or "terror birds" within the subfamily Brontornithinae that lived in Brazil. Its length was about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) and the skull had a length of 60 centimetres (24 in). The only known species is Paraphysornis brasiliensis.

Description

Its height to the head was approximately 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) and the skull had a length of 60 centimetres (24 in). The terror bird was slightly smaller than Brontornis burmeisteri, but larger than Phorusrhacos longissimus.[1] It lived around 23 million years ago and its fossils were recovered from the Tremembé Formation of the Taubaté Basin. In the Museum of Natural History of Taubaté is exposed the almost complete skeleton of Paraphysornis found in 1982 by Herculano Alvarenga.

References

  1. ^ Alvarenga & Höfling, 2003, p.58

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Alvarenga, H.M.F. (1982) Uma gigantesca ave fóssil do cenozóico brasileiro: Physornis brasiliensis sp. n. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 54(4):697-712