Psilopterus
Sign in to savePsilopterus (Greek for "bare wing") is an extinct genus of phorusrhacid ("terror bird") from the Middle Oligocene to possibly the Late Pleistocene of Argentina and Uruguay. Compared to other phorusrhacids, members of the genus are both relatively gracile and diminutive, and include the smallest known species of terror bird: with the head raised P. bachmanni was in height and weighed about , while the largest members of the genus were only about . The birds resemble the modern cariama (Cariama cristata), except with a heavier build and considerably smaller wings. Fossil finds in Uruguay indicat
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Description and taxonomy
- ''Psilopterus bachmanni''
- ''Psilopterus lemoinei''
- ''Psilopterus affinis''
- ''Psilopterus colzecus''
- Classification
- Paleobiology
- Paleoenvironment
- References
- External links
Psilopterus (Greek for "bare wing") is an extinct genus of phorusrhacid ("terror bird") from the Middle Oligocene to possibly the Late Pleistocene of Argentina and Uruguay. Compared to other phorusrhacids, members of the genus are both relatively gracile and diminutive, and include the smallest known species of terror bird: with the head raised P. bachmanni was in height and weighed about , while the largest members of the genus were only about . The birds resemble the modern cariama (Cariama cristata), except with a heavier build and considerably smaller wings. Fossil finds in Uruguay indicate the genus may have survived until 96,040 ± 6,300 years ago, millions of years after the larger phorusrhacids became extinct.
== Description and taxonomy == The most recent systematic revision of Phorusrhacidae placed Psilopterus within the subfamily Psilopterinae, along with the genera Procariama and Paleopsilopterus, and divided Psilopterus into four species.