#Telluraves

[new-dinosaurs]

Rufiphonia Vázquez-López & Hernández-Baños, 2024 (new genus)

(A male individual of Rufiphonia rufiventris, photographed by Hector Bottai, under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Meaning of name: Not explained by authors, but presumably Rufiphonia = rufous [in Latin] Euphonia [genus of finches including the white-vented euphonia]

Species included: R. rufiventris (rufous-bellied euphonia, type species, previously in Euphonia), R. anneae (tawny-capped euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. cayennensis (golden-sided euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. fulvicrissa (fulvous-vented euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. gouldi (olive-backed euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. imitans (spot-crowned euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. mesochrysa (bronze-green euphonia, previously in Euphonia), R. pectoralis (chestnut-bellied euphonia, previously in Euphonia), and R. xanthogaster (orange-bellied euphonia, previously in Euphonia)

Age: Holocene (Meghalayan), extant

Where found: Humid forests in Central and South America

Notes: Rufiphonia is a genus of euphonias, a group of finches from the tropical Americas in which the males tend to be brightly colored. Unlike most other finches, euphonias feed primarily on fruits instead of seeds, and accordingly they generally have less robust beaks than typical finches.

Currently, only two euphonia genera are recognized, Chlorophonia and Euphonia, each containing a large number of species. However, a new study on the evolutionary history of this group suggests splitting Chlorophonia into two distinct genera and Euphonia into three based on their phylogenetic relationships and anatomical differences. For species traditionally classified in Euphonia, the authors propose limiting Euphonia proper to a group of closely related euphonias in which males tend to have a dark blue throat and yellow belly, resurrecting the old name Phonasca for a second group in which males tend to have a yellow throat, and coining the new name Rufiphonia for a third in which both males and females can have rufous patches on the belly, head, or underside of the tail.

Reference: Vázquez-López, M., S.M. Ramírez-Barrera, A.K. Terrones-Ramírez, S.M. Robles-Bello, A. Nieto-Montes de Oca, K. Ruegg, and B.E. Hernández-Baños. 2024. Biogeographic factors contributing to the diversification of Euphoniinae (Aves, Passeriformes, Fringillidae): a phylogenetic and ancestral areas analysis. ZooKeys 1188: 169–195. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1188.107047

#Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Rufiphonia #Holocene #North America #South America #Telluraves #2024 #Extant

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Hi. I just remembered that someone once said that falcons were basically parrots that min-maxed for speed (I don't remember the actual words, or where I saw them) in order to live a predatory lifestyle (it should be the other way around, since psittaciformes split off of falconiformes). What would that make of Keas, then? Do you think they would they become something similar, given time, or would they develop into a different niche (assuming they continue living their current lifestyle)?

THIS IS ACTUALLY A FASCINATING ISSUE

Essentially: All the earliest diverging members of Telluraves ("Core Land Birds", if you will) are Birds of Prey - Owls, Hawks, Eagles, Vultures, Seriemas, they're all at the base

INDICATING that predatory lifestyles are ancestral for the group

The earliest members of the Parrot-Passerine clade (the sister group to Falcons) were also predatory birds

And, "New Zealand Parrots" (Kea, Kaka, Kakapo) are the first group of parrots to diverge

Indicating that Kea might actually be retaining that ancestral predatory condition to some extent

So who knows what life has in store for them, but being opportunistic omnivores seems to be going fairly well (as it did for us, for corvids, for raccoons, etc.)

#kea #falcons #birds #dinosaurs #telluraves

[otussketching]

Fossil Novembirb: Day 2 - The Survivors

Birds survived the catastrophic End-Cretaceous extinction event, but only by the skin of their beaks. Only a handful of bird species were able to make it. And for the few survivors, the slowly healing world was full of opportunity. They started to expand their ranges and ecological niches, and started to diversify in an exponential rate.

Tsidiiyazhi: The first known mousebird, and one of the earliest known perching birds, or telluraves. Known from New Mexico.

Qinornis: A peculiar flighted ground bird known from China. It might be the only stem-bird to have survived the K/Pg extinction event.

Australornis: A probable relative of Vegavis, a small diving seabird known from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Conflicto: A large wading waterfowl, related to ducks and geese, and resembling presbyornithids (Flamingo-ducks). Known from Antarctica.

Qiashanornis: One of the earliest known Cariamiformes (seriemas, terror birds and kin) found in China. It had grasping talons to catch small prey.

#Fossil Novembirb #Novembirb #Dinovember #birblr #palaeoblr #Cenozoic Birds #Dinosaurs #birds #Tsidiiyazhi #Qinornis #Australornis #Conflicto #Qiashanornis

[albertonykus]

With recent advances in genetic sequencing and analysis, we now have a pretty good idea of how most modern vertebrate animals are related to each other. One of the biggest remaining mysteries in vertebrate evolution (and a major theme of my own research), however, is the relationships among the major groups of living birds.

There are some things that we all agree on about the bird family tree (which in some cases were already recognized before the rise of genetic studies), a big one being that modern birds can be divided into two major branches: Palaeognathae (ostriches, emus, and their close relatives) and Neognathae (all other living birds). Neognathae is in turn divided into Galloanserae (chickens, ducks, and their close relatives) and Neoaves (all remaining birds, which constitute 95% of living bird diversity).

Despite birds being one of the most intensely studied animal groups, however, essentially none of the large-scale genetic analyses that have been done on them so far have agreed with each other regarding how the major groups within Neoaves are related.

A new study by Stiller et al. (2024) might represent a big step forward in solving this mystery. Their results suggest that Neoaves can be divided into four major groups.

Mirandornithes: Flamingos and grebes. Stiller et al. found that all other members of Neoaves are probably more closely related to each other than to this group.

Columbaves: Consisting of two major subgroups, Otidimorphae (cuckoos, bustards, and turacos) and Columbimorphae (pigeons, sandgrouse, and mesites). Notably, Columbimorphae has been found by some earlier studies to be more closely related to Mirandornithes, but a second paper that was published on the same day by some of the same authors as Stiller et al. (2024) reported evidence that this previous result was probably caused by misleading similarities between the genetic sequences of Columbimorphae and Mirandornithes.

Elementaves: Consisting of Gruiformes (cranes and their close relatives), Charadriiformes (shorebirds), Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightjars, and their close relatives), Phaethoquornithes (many waterbirds, including penguins, albatrosses, and herons), and the engimatic hoatzin. The exact relationships among these groups are still somewhat unclear; for example, Stiller et al. found the hoatzin to be most closely related to gruiforms and shorebirds (as had been suggested by an earlier study), but support for this result was not high. The hoatzin remains the single most difficult bird species to place in the bird family tree. The name Elementaves was newly coined by Stiller et al., referring to the fact that this group includes species specialized for life in the water, on the ground, and in the air (corresponding to the classical elements of water, earth, and air), as well as birds named after the sun ("fire"), such as the tropicbird genus Phaethon (Ancient Greek for "sun") and the sunbittern. This means that there is now a scientific basis for parodying Avatar: The Last Airbender using birds.

Telluraves: A big group consisting primarily of tree-dwelling birds, including songbirds, parrots, woodpeckers, kingfishers, and the various groups of birds of prey. An interesting result found by Stiller et al. is that owls are likely closely related to accipitrimorphs (hawks, eagles, vultures, etc.), which not all previous genetic studies had supported.

Stiller et al. (2024) provide further evidence for some bird relationships found by earlier analyses, but their results still doesn't exactly match those of any single previous study, so what makes this different from all those attempts that came before it? One is the amount of data. The genetic dataset analyzed by Stiller et al. was many times larger (both in terms of sequence length and the types of genes examined) than any study of this sort that had previously been done on birds. They also included over 360 bird species, which is more than what most previous studies had. Furthermore, they ran numerous tests to determine how the amount of data, number of species, and types of genes analyzed affected their findings, and in doing so were able to show that most of their results were relatively robust, or at least better supported than alternative hypotheses.

Another point of contention regarding the evolution of Neoaves is when the group originated. Were there already many neoavian lineages around during the Late Cretaceous, or did they mostly diversify following the mass extinction event that ended it? In the 2000s and early 2010s, studies trying to estimate the ages of bird groups based on rates of genetic evolution tended to find an older origin for Neoaves, but the majority of newer studies favor a younger origin, with most or all modern neoavian groups appearing after the Cretaceous (though one paper from earlier this year by a different team of authors advocated for older ages). Informed by recent studies on fossil birds, the results of Stiller et al. add further support for a more recent, mainly post-Cretaceous diversification of Neoaves (which I happen to think is more plausible than deep Cretaceous origins).

This almost certainly won't be the last word on these controversies by any means. However, at the moment I'm willing to tentatively consider Stiller et al. (2024) the closest we've gotten to approximating the true family tree of birds, and that is not a declaration I'd make lightly.

#Birblr #Birds #Dinosaurs #Phylogeny #Long post

[istherewifiinhell]

hang on this is techically a reply to joelle abt owl metazooa but its my own. More information than needed quick wiki look up soooo

looks like. tyto and strigidae. both owls. within strigiformes. and thats still owls. and the only thing between that and just. Aves. is

Telluraves (also called land birds or core landbirds) is a recently defined[2] clade of birds defined by their arboreality.[3] Based on most recent genetic studies, the clade unites a variety of bird groups, including the australavians (passerines, parrots, seriemas, and falcons) as well as the afroavians (including the Accipitrimorphae – eagles, hawks, buzzards, vultures etc. – owls and woodpeckers, among others).

^which. guessing on that its recent genetic thing. and that i did guess vultures and it didnt connect them as related. im assuming metazooa just doesnt yet reflected the relation!

#some shit #wifi at the zoo #I WILL. continue to talk about the metazooa WITHOUT knowing what family. genus. clade. and etc means. btw. sorry. #they are just points of relation that branch out to me. sorry. i didnt take bio i took chem. #only think i know about is pundit sqaures cause im friends with funny ppl who like horses

[circa-specturgia]

it's still Wednesday if I squint hehe ! So for worldbuilding thurdnesday, could you talk about Ciro's winged race? :o Do the wings look different, or are they all snowy white? How did they evolve their wings, or are they descended from something completely separate? Do they run into any trouble because of the wings - walking down the street, getting clothes fit, maybe people trying to steal a feather?

OHHH! Ok this is gonna be my chance to geek out a bit! Thanks so much for this ask @muddshadow!!! ✨

Note! Some of what I’ve got below is subject to some change as I’ve just came back to looking over the origins of the world and all and feel like it may be due for a rework of sorts, but this is what I’ve got for the time being!

The Æris (A’eyris), or Winged (Wing’yd), are one of several races inhabiting the world of Circa Specturgia. The unifying characteristic traits for a majority of Æris are:

- Wings. Obviously. It’s kinda self explanatory with the name, don’t know why I’m even mentioning this…

- Height varying between 200-250cm (6’6” - 8’2”). They’re taaallllll, in part because the heigh acts as counterbalance to the wingspan, in order to attain stable flight, but mainly because I like tall people ✨

- Weigh being lower than what would be expected for their height, due to alternate bone composition, more hollow like in birds, reducing weight and allowing for flight

- Unique bone and muscle structure of the upper body, wider shoulders and a far more built upper torso, to allow for proper attachment and movement of wings!

- Unique eyes, most often black sclera, in some cases entirely black eyes, in some cases possessing a colorful iris, colors ranging between predominantly yellow, red, and orange, with blue and green eyes being slightly less common.

- Most age just ever so slightly faster than Humans, though there are some races of Æris which seem to age slower.

Now, for some more specific world-building and biological details! And to answer the question too! *pushes up glasses*

The Æris are mainly comprised of races with avian traits of the clade Passerea.

However, there is a far higher percentage of all Æris of avian traits from the sub-clade of Passerea, Telluraves, these being birds including hawks, vultures, eagles, owls (Like Ciro!), falcons, and passerines! Passerines themselves are the most common of the Æris races.

The lower percentage of Æris possess mainly avian traits of the sub-clade of Passerea, Ardeae, and other sub-clades, these including Æris of avian traits of birds such as tropicbirds, herons, shorebirds, and swifts!

There do also exist a few very small and local races of Æris with traits outside the clade Passerea, these being Æris of avian traits such as peafowl (duh, obviously I added peacocks 🦚 ✨)!

So, yes! There are tons of different races of Æris, most often differing in wing structure, pigmentation, and other such traits, sometimes in diet and height as well! (A rule of thumb is that the greater the wingspan the taller the Æris to counterbalance it properly, though I have been thinking about adding a part of the wings or a form of tail to them!)

Their evolution and coming into being is a bit of an odd part of history but the theory I have for it is a concrete global genetic anomaly which acted as a sort of catalyst that caused the formation of the varied races from a single joint ancestor, approximately 1.8M years prior, to current day during an epoch of ice, with evolution doing the rest! This is pretty subject to change though but a big part of my world will be the ancient history and all that good origins stuff!

One small thing of note before I get into the whole clothes and daily life stuff too!

Some Æris can learn to ‘fold’ their wings away! That isn’t to say that they simply have them pressed to their back, as most tend to carry them, but that they are able to make them melt into their form and become immaterial! The way weight is distributed and all is odd, but, essentially it can be a bit cramping if it’s kept up for too long so while it’s a good skill to learn through lots of practice and attempts, it’s not something they many who even know how to do it keep up for long. When they’re let loose, think of getting up after being seated in the same pose for a few hours, like getting out of the car in a long drive and stretching, it’s that good stretch feel.

The same is the case for the talons and scales on the hands and feet, though these are in a reverse situation; most Æris don’t know how to bring them forth unless they are in some ways pushed to it or simply learn it, as some Æris races (predominantly those of predator birds) have a higher chance of being able to learn this.

Ciro for one is someone who will eventually be able to do both, folding his wings away to be more manageable at some times, as well as manifesting talons and scales!

As for day to day life! Æris LOVE nests. Not like, actual nests, but Æris beds are most often designed akin to wicker baskets with a sort of curvature to them, along with lots of room to lie down with the wings unfolded, and loose! Æris homes and spaces are usually pretty spacious though the winged folk themselves are characterized by their grace, so knocking something over with their wings is a rarity. It’s more often the wind from them opening that’s a bother, so, paperweights come in handy. Chairs and all usually have no back rest/a low back rest to accommodate, and pouches/harnesses for bags, or satchels are pretty common! Clothes usually consist of pants/loose fitting garments that are flowing but which don’t move around too much, ie are bound at the ankles to stay in place when flying. Some wear tailored shirts with a window in the back and buttons at the back of the neck that close it up, some prefer robes more akin to those worn by buddhist monks, with comfy fabric. Silk, while light, is expensive, and hard to come by, and so linen is a more common fabric of choice, being lightweight.

With a variety of body types, and races, any non-Æris seamster or seamstress who has some practice should be able to fit any clothes they’d need, or cut a window into anything that wouldn’t already be tailored to them!

An Æris’ feather, given willingly, can symbolize a lot of things, depending on their intention, from trust, to love, to respect, to a promise or oath. However, to take a feather without permission, to steal one already given or to even worse, pluck one off of a pair of wings is seen as possibly one of the worst insults one can give. Lots of Æris curses as a result reference plucking or the like!

PHEW, that was FUN. Took me a while, but, I had a chance to think some stuff over and add some detail to some parts I wasn’t quite sure on! Thanks for the opportunity and for the ask, again!!! Hope you enjoyed! ✨✨✨

Taglist! @bloodlessheirbyjacques @athenswrites @magefaery @writingonesdreams ✨

#writeblr #writing #writers on tumblr #writing thoughts #circa specturgia #wip.circa specturgia #writing community #writing inspiration #wtwcommunity #my ocs #speculative fiction #fantasy race #the aeris one

[serinemolecule]

My impression was Neoaves was pretty settled now but passeriformes in particular are still a mess

(context: bird hell)

I'd believe that! All I know is from Wikipedia, which does not seem to want to pick a side yet.

Not that any other taxonomy website seems to have picked a side, either. The IOC's taxonomy has Neoaves, Aequornithes, Telluraves, and Australaves, but nothing I'd think of as particularly controversial.

#biology

[musiclovingmoth]

chose the path of light and made my own post instead of being an obnoxious mansplainer in op's tags: falcons are definitely more closely related to parrots than they are to eagles/hawks/vultures but they are also not literally parrots either

parrots (order psittaciformes) are most closely related to songbirds (basically like. every little bird in your backyard like sparrows, thrushes, warblers, even crows; order passeriformes). those two groups are then most immediately related to falcons (order falconiformes). the tree on wikipedia sums this up nicely based off a paper i'm going to cite again in this post:

falcons and parrots are clear on the opposite side of the tree from the other predatory birds which might understandably make one think "oh they're not related whatsoever huh" but if you look at the root of this tree you can see it's only the clade telluraves and not all of birds

this is from the 2021 paper that presents a phylogeny of all birds. telluraves is in green here in (a). in the grand scheme of all things bird i would say that while yes falcons are more related to parrots than they are to eagles, i wouldn't say they're that distantly related either. basically i think they could be farther apart than some people might make them out to be lol

small side note: you may be wondering why "new world" vultures are in their own order but "old world" vultures are mysteriously absent from the tree. this is because old world vultures are actually in the family accipitridae with hawks and eagles. new world vultures are in their own order (cathartiformes) and are therefore significantly different birds despite looking the same!

also in this paper i learned that the 7 major clades of birds (highlighted in different colors and roman numerals in (a)) are often referred to as "the magnificent 7" and i love that

#i'm sure op already knew all this i just love systematics semantics and wanted to give my 2 cents without being annoying on their post #lab notebook

[animalids]

Pale chanting goshawk (Melierax canorus)

Photo by Marion Hogl

#pale chanting goshawk #melierax canorus #melierax #melieraxinae #accipitridae #accipitriformes #accipitrimorphae #afroaves #telluraves #inopinaves #neoaves #neognathae #aves #theropoda #archosauria #sauropsida #reptilia #tetrapoda #vertebrata #chordata

[cladocircles]

The most basic guide to Neornithes, aka Modern Birds 

Everything is as simplified as possible. Based on Prum et al., 2015. Note some things: 

1) All names here are of the groups used in Dinosaur March Madness (as a guide), and the relevant parent clades 

2) According to Prum’s analysis, Camprimulgiformes are actually paraphyletic with regards to Apodiformes, i.e., Apodiformes should really be within Caprimulgiformes, but since this is a relatively controversial conclusion, I’ve left them separate for now 

3) Aequorlitornithes is a ridiculously long clade name. 

4) The classic clade of Afroaves was not, in fact, recovered; rather, Accipitrimorphs were found as being less closely related to Australaves than Strigiformes and Coraciimorphs were. Traditionally, Telluraves was divided directly in half: Afroaves (Accipitrimorphs, Strigiformes, and Coraciimorphs) and Australaves (Cariamiformes, Falconfiromes, Parrots and Passerines). Here, Accipitrimorphs falls outside of [Strigiformes + Coraciimorphs] + Australaves. 

5) This doesn’t really take into account fossil taxa or morphological data. 

6) Bird phylogeny is in flux. I doubtlessly will make more of these. 

Source: Prum, R. O., J. S. Berv, A. Dornburg, D. J. Field, J. P. Townsend, E. M. Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon. 2015. A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526: 569 - 573. 

#birds #dinosaurs #neornithes #phylogenetics #taxonomy #cladocircle #cladogram #systematics #cladistics

[new-dinosaurs]

Driophlox Scott et al., 2024 (new genus)

(An individual of Driophlox gutturalis, photographed by Christoph Moning, under CC BY 4.0)

Meaning of name: Driophlox = thicket flame [in Greek]

Species included: D. gutturalis (sooty ant tanager, type species, previously in Habia), D. atrimaxillaris (black-cheeked ant tanager, previously in Habia), D. cristata (crested ant tanager, previously in Habia), and D. fuscicauda (red-throated ant tanager, previously in Habia)

Age: Holocene (Meghalayan), extant

Where found: Forest undergrowth in Middle and South America

Notes: The name "ant tanager" is used for several species of tropical songbirds closely related to cardinals. Despite often being brightly colored, they are generally secretive. They feed primarily on insects and some fruits, and as their common name suggests, are known to occasionally follow swarms of army ants to capture fleeing arthropods.

Current taxonomic authorities classify all of the ant tanagers in the genus Habia. However, recent genetic studies have found that the red-crowned ant tanager (Habia rubica) is more closely related to the genus Chlorothraupis than to other ant tanagers. Given that H. rubica is the type species of Habia, a new genus is needed for the other ant tanagers, so the authors of a new paper coin the name Driophlox for this purpose.

Reference: Scott, B.F., R.T. Chesser, P. Unitt, and K.J. Burns. 2024. Driophlox, a new genus of cardinalid (Aves: Passeriformes: Cardinalidae). Zootaxa 5406: 497–500. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5406.3.11

#Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Driophlox #Holocene #North America #South America #Telluraves #2024 #Extant

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

So, if Telluravians are likely ancestrally raptorial, would it be appropiate to say that Coraciimorphs and Psittacopasserans are derived raptors? Because that's cool.

It would be!!!! And they are!!! Provided that hypothesis is correct

#telluraves

[bukbot]

wikilifeadvice: I feel like eating the petals from the class how to say she's coming over...

dont-you-dare-say-misha: When you are an order Mantodea of insects related to “core landbirds” Telluraves, and one carrying a club nintendo here are more relaxing.

wikilifeadvice: He’s trying folks.

dont-you-dare-say-misha: Lmao Und dann jubelte sie: An der Spitze des achten Armes steckte ein kleines Lied.

#chat #wikilifeadvice #dont-you-dare-say-misha

[albertonykus]

This was funnier in my head. (NB: I'm not implying that any of the studies in the top panel were "failures". The point is that we still haven't found a consistent position for the hoatzin.)

To phylogeneticists, the hoatzin is the most frustrating bird in the world. We still don't really know what it is. One early idea suggested that it was closely related to seriemas (the closest living relatives of terror birds).

It’s an intriguing idea, but molecular studies haven't upheld a particularly close relationship between the hoatzin and seriemas. However, Prum et al. (2015) found the hoatzin closely related to "core landbirds" (Telluraves), and one of the deepest splits in this clade is the one between the lineage leading to seriemas and the lineage leading to falcons, parrots, and songbirds.

Furthermore, hoatzin-like features have been noted in fossil birds traditionally thought to have been close to seriemas (such as Elaphrocnemus). Hoatzins and seriemas may not be extant sister taxa, but could their similarities be homologous after all? Food for thought...

#Hoatzin #Birblr #Palaeoblr #Birds #Dinosaurs #Phylogeny #Seriema #Meme

[new-dinosaurs]

Waltonirrisor tendringensis Mayr & Kitchener, 2024 (new genus and species)

(Specimens of Waltonirrisor tendringensis [scale bars = 5 mm], from Mayr and Kitchener, 2024)

Meaning of name: Waltonirrisor = Walton-on-the-Naze Irrisor [defunct genus name for the green woodhoopoe, now in the genus Phoeniculus]; tendringensis = from Tendring

Age: Eocene (Ypresian), 54.6‒55 million years ago

Where found: London Clay Formation, Essex, U.K.

How much is known: Partial skeletons of at least three individuals and several isolated bones, together representing various limb bones, a vertebra, and a partial lower jaw.

Notes: Waltonirrisor was a close relative of hoopoes and woodhoopoes, a group of boldly-colored birds with long, curved bills. Specimens of Waltonirrisor had been previously figured in a 1998 paper, but were left unnamed at the time. Waltonirrisor was larger than most other Paleogene hoopoe-like birds, but smaller than extant hoopoes and woodhoopoes. It is the oldest hoopoe-like bird currently known.

A partial humerus (upper arm bone) from the Eocene of Germany may also belong to this genus.

Reference: Mayr, G. and A.C. Kitchener. 2024. The Picocoraciades (hoopoes, rollers, woodpeckers, and allies) from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze. PalZ advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s12542-024-00687-9

#Palaeoblr #Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Waltonirrisor #Eocene #Europe #Telluraves #2024 #Extinct

[new-dinosaurs]

Thegornis sosae Agnolín, 2023 (new species)

(Type tarsometatarsus [fused ankle and foot bones] of Thegornis sosae [scale bar = 1 cm], from Agnolín, 2023)

Meaning of name: sosae = for Haydée Mercedes Sosa [Argentinian singer]

Age: Probably Miocene (Tortonian–Messinian)

Where found: Probably the Andalhualá Formation, Catamarca, Argentina

How much is known: A partial left tarsometatarsus (fused ankle and foot bones).

Notes: T. sosae was a falcon, closely related to the extant laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) and forest falcons (genus Micrastur) of the tropical Americas. Three other species of Thegornis had previously been named, the older T. musculosus, T. debilis, and T. spivacowi from the early–middle Miocene of Argentina. T. debilis was about the same size as the laughing falcon, whereas T. musculosus, T. spivacowi, and T. sosae were slightly larger (though it is possible that T. debilis may represent a male individual of T. musculosus, given that females are often substantially larger than males in extant falcons).

Few details about the collection of the type specimen of T. sosae were recorded, hence the uncertainty regarding its precise locality. The specimen had previously been identified as a hawk of the genus Geranoaetus in 2006, but more detailed study has led to its reinterpretation as a new species of falcon.

Reference: Agnolín, F.L. 2023. A new species of the falcon genus Thegornis (Aves) from the Miocene of northwestern Argentina. Historia Natural 13: 15–24.

#Palaeoblr #Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Thegornis sosae #Miocene #South America #Telluraves #2023 #Extinct