Paraphysornis
Sign in to saveParaphysornis is an extinct genus of giant flightless terror birds that inhabited Brazil during Late Oligocene or Early Miocene epochs. Although not the tallest phorusrhacid, Paraphysornis measured up to tall at the hips and weighed around . It was also a notably robust bird, having short and robust tarsal bones not suited for pursuit hunting.
Article
5 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Description
- Classification
- Paleoecology
- References
Paraphysornis is an extinct genus of giant flightless terror birds that inhabited Brazil during Late Oligocene or Early Miocene epochs. Although not the tallest phorusrhacid, Paraphysornis measured up to tall at the hips and weighed around . It was also a notably robust bird, having short and robust tarsal bones not suited for pursuit hunting.
== Discovery and naming== The holotype (DGM-1418-R) and only known fossil was discovered by a mining company in the Taubaté Basin (São Paulo State) in a layer of bentonite clay, two or three meters below a layer of Pyrobitumen. These sediments belong to the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene Tremembé Formation. Excavation of the bones took several months between 1977 and 1978, yielding a nearly complete (%75) skeleton only lacking most of the cranium, the pelvis and sternum. The bones were initially studied by Herculano Alvarenga, who first described them in 1982 as a species of Physornis.