Brontornis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Brontornis burmeisteri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
see text |
Brontornis was a genus of giant flightless predatory birds that lived in Patagonia. The only species currently accepted as valid is B. burmeisteri. It belonges to the family Phorusrhacidae, nicknamed "Terror Birds" for their large size and predatory lifestyle, and more precisely to the subfamily Brontornithinae, which contained extremely large and very heavyset forms.
It is known from bones, mainly of the legs and feet but also some skull and backbone parts, found in several localities of Santa Cruz Province.
B. burmeisteri was the largest species of phorusrhacid, with a height of around 2.80 meters and an estimated weight of 350-400 kg (Alvarenga & Höfling, 2003), making it the third-heaviest bird ever according to current knowledge (after Aepyornis maximus and Dromornis stirtoni), and the most massive land predator of its time and place. Due to its bulk, it probably had a lifestyle between an ambush predator and one that actively chased prey, pouncing on the latter from a hideout and bringing it down by sheer force of attack after a short chase. In attacking prey (but probably not necessarily in a defensive situation, as it was too slow-moving) it most likely was the dominant carnivore of Miocene Patagonia, being able to kill even large animals like Astrapotherium pseudo-elephants and in the predatory role being on par with a pack of Thylacosmilus (marsupialian sabre-tooth). It coexisted with some slightly smaller and more active phorusrhacids like Phorusrhacos, but apparently became extinct before the appearance of the immense Argentavis, the largest flying bird ever.
[edit] Synonyms
There are several synonyms of the species and genus:
Genus-level synonym:
Species-level synonymy:
Possibly, the fossils described as B. platyonyx represent another species; they are about one-third smaller than the largest Brontornis bones. It is much more likely, however, that they represent sexual dimorphism. In today's hawks and owls, females are usually considerably larger than the males; this prevents overutilization of one size class of prey. It is not known whether phorusrhacid males or females would have been larger, but the fossils of the North American phorusrhacid Titanis also show considerable variation in size, suggesting that there was indeed at least a tendency for differently-sized sexes.
[edit] References
- Alvarenga, Herculano M. F. & Höfling, Elizabeth (2003): Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 43(4): 55-91 PDF fulltext
- Moreno, Francisco P. & Mercerat, A. (1891): Catálogo de los pájaros fósiles de la República Argentina conservados en el Museo de La Plata. Anales del Museo de La Plata 1: 7-71.
 |
This prehistoric bird article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
