Sophiornithidae
Sign in to saveThe Sophiornithidae (literally "wisdom birds") are an extinct family of chicken-sized predatory birds that lived from the Paleocene to the Eocene periods of the Cenozoic, and were found primarily in Europe, and are thought to be primitive owls (hence, the name wisdom bird). They were also possibly related to Strigiformes.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Sophiornithidae is referenced by 51 other articles, and connects out to Strigiformes, Strigogyps and Europe.
It sits within the topics Birds of Prey, Eocene extinctions and Owls.
Its subject is documented across 7 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Strigiformes
- Image
- Sophiornis Strigogyps Necrobyas.jpg
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- taxon name
- Sophiornithidae
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The Sophiornithidae (literally "wisdom birds") are an extinct family of chicken-sized predatory birds that lived from the Paleocene to the Eocene periods of the Cenozoic, and were found primarily in Europe, and are thought to be primitive owls (hence, the name wisdom bird). They were also possibly related to Strigiformes.
The French genera Berruornis (Late Paleocene to Late Eocene/Early Oligocene), as well as Palaeotyto and Palaeobyas from Quercy, are sometimes placed in this family. The latter might instead be barn owls, while the first might be a very basal owl but not an actual sophiornithid. Strigogyps was placed here for a time, but it has been revised several times since then and appears to be an ameghinornitid; these were distant relatives of the seriemas.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sophiornithidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.