Teratornis
| Teratornis | ||||||||||
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Skeleton of Teratornis merriami in the La Brea Tar Pits Museum |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Old Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene | ||||||||||
| 1.8 million years to 126,000 years | ||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Teratornis | ||||||||||
| LH Miller , 1909 |
Teratornis was a genus of birds that was widespread in western North America (Florida to California) andresembledtoday's vultures , but the closer relationship between this species and the Teratornithidae as a whole is still unclear. Two types have been described.
Teratornis merriami had a wingspan of approx. 3.5 to 3.8 m, weighed approx. 15 kg and reached a height of approx. 75 cm when standing; it was one of the smaller types of the family. The species was widespread in North America in the late Pleistocene , with fossils of at least 100 animals of this species found in California (particularly in the La Brea Tar Pits ), Arizona , Nevada, and Florida . It is counted as part of the North American megafauna .
Teratornis incredibilis was about 40% larger than T. merriami . Standing he was also 75 cm high, but had a wingspan of 5.2 to 5.9 m. Its fossil remains have been found in Nevada and California .
The huge, board-like wings, the huge beak and the barely curved claws indicate that Teratornis , like the other members of the family, similar to today's Old World vultures, mainly used the thermals over open landscapes to forage and lived on the carrion of the Pleistocene large mammals. The hypothesis put forward by Campbell & Tonni (1983) that teratornids mainly preyed on live prey the size of rabbits and did not live primarily on carrion was rejected by Feduccia (1996) because the morphology was completely unsuitable for such a diet.
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- Kenneth E. Jr. Campbell, EP Tonni: Size and locomotion in teratorns. The Auk 100 (2), 1993; Pages 390–403 ( full text ; PDF file; 921 kB)
- A. Feduccia: The origin and evolution of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven / London 1996. ISBN 0-300-06460-8 : pp. 305-307
- Love H. Miller: Teratornis, a new avian genus from Rancho La Brea. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geology 5, 1909; Pages 305-317.
