Systemic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes)
By Herculano Alvarenga, E. Höfling. 2003
102 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Fossil remains of birds belonging to the family Phorusrhacidae were studied in several museums of South America, North America and Europe, the main objective being to characterize this family and solve the chaotic state of the nomenclature and classification of these birds. Reconstruction of some species has been done, with the purpose of having an idea about the size, body weight, posture and habit based in their skeletons. The European species, Ameghinornis minor and Aenigmavis sapea are refuted as belonging to this family. Also several forms described from the Tertiary of Argentina are refuted, because they are based on inadequate segments of the skeleton for a good identification, as is the case of the genera Cunampaia, Smiliornis, Pseudolarus, Lophiornis and Riacama, frequently refered to as belonging to the Phorusrhacidae. The Phorusrhacidae family probably originated in South America, since the end of the Cretaceous, as a result of an endemism formed by the isolation of this landmass. During the end of the Pliocene, with the emersion of the Panama isthmus, the family spread to the North America where at least one species is known Titanis walleri, which perhaps represents the last known species of this family, probably becoming extinct in the beginning of the Pleistocene. A systematic revision has been conducted, dealing with the countless problems of nomenclature, and the Phorusrhacidae is now composed of five subfamilies, which are: Brontornithinae, Phorusrhacinae, Patagornithinae, Psilopterinae and Mesembriornithinae in which 13 genera and 17 species are considered. Characters of all taxa are described and a geochronological distribution of all species is presented.
Subfields: Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b5d60407909bd3b275101dc5934b0f1eb4b067ef
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In Nature and Landscape Conservation
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Citations in the corpus
- The Evolution of the Cenozoic Terrestrial Mammalian Predator Guild in South America: Competition or Replacement? (2011, background): “Assessment of " terror bird " diver - sity ( see Alvarenga and Höfling 2003 ; Agnolin 2009 ) shows that the number of species was low during the Cenozoic , with few peaks : one in the Santacrucian with six species and the other in the Huayquerian with five species ( Fig .”
- Evolution of South American Mammalian Predators During the Cenozoic: Paleobiogeographic and Paleoenvironmental Contingencies (2018, background): “AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA BM, British Museum of Natural History, London, UK CICYTTP-PV-M, Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción de Diamante, Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina CORD-P”