Eocene terror bird unguals from Antarctica
Hospitaleche and Jones 2024 descibed
large predatory bird unguals from Antarctica and ascribed them to terror birds.
All well and good, but…
Figure 5. Cariama compared to Sagittarius. The former is closer to flamingos. The latter is closer to terror birds.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-29294″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg” alt=”Figure 5. Cariama compared to Sagittarius. The former is closer to flamingos. The latter is closer to terror birds.” width=”584″ height=”382″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg?w=584&h=382 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg?w=150&h=98 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg?w=300&h=196 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cariama_sagittarius588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Cariama compared to Sagittarius. The former is closer to flamingos. The latter is closer to terror birds.
The only problem with this study
is terror birds are not members of the Cariamiformes in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa). Instead terror birds belong to the family of extant secretary birds, genus Sagittarius (Fig 1), a similar taxon not mentioned in the text, and never mentioned with regard to terror birds, despite sharing so many traits.
Why is this so?
Sagittarius is found only in Africa.
Cariama, the seriema, is found only in South America. So were all known terror birds until this new paper by Hospitaleche and Jones.
In the LRT Cariama gave rise to flamingos.
That’s never mentioned in academic papers.
In the LRT Sagittarius gave rise to terror birds.
Remember, at one time the Atlantic Ocean was not the massive barrier it is today. Sagittarius gave rise to terror birds when the South Atlantic was a small inlet starting to separate South America from Africa… and, one way or another, Antarctica. Crown birds go back to the Early Cretaceous in the LRT. Both Sagittarius and Cariama are primitive crown birds in the LRT, and close to one another, but each one at the genesis of a clade.
Taxon exclusion remains the number one problem in paleontology.
The LRT minimizes taxon exclusion by testing so many taxa.
Do this yourself to test this terror bird ancestry issue..
References
Hospitaleche CA and Jones W 2024. Were terror birds the apex continental predators of Antarctica? New findings in the early Eocene of Seymour Island. Palaeontologia Electronica, 27(1):a13. https://doi.org/10.26879/1340
Publicity
/blog/5161-terror-bird-antarctica
Secretary birds (genus: Sagittarius) are small, extant terror birds
The origin of giant birds: Phorusrhacos, the giant secretary bird
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/eocene-terror-bird-unguals-from-antarctica/
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