Eutreptornis

Eutreptornis
Temporal range: Late Eocene
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: ?Cariamae
Family: ?Bathornithidae
Genus: Eutreptornis
Joel Cracraft 1971
Species: E. uintae
(Joel Cracraft 1971)
Binomial name
Eutreptornis uintae

Eutreptornis is a genus of extinct cariamiforme bird from the Late Eocene of Utah. It is traditionally considered to be a bathornithid,[1][2] though a combination of the relative incompleteness of the material alongside some differences from other bathornithids have raised some suspicions about this affiliation.[3]

Description

Eutreptornis is currently represented by a single type species, E. uintae, in turn represented by a tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus from the Uinta Formation of Utah.

Biology

It is the smallest bathornithid remains known.[4] Due to the incompleteness of its remains it is unclear whereas it was flightless like later forms or capable flight like contemporary and larger Neocathartes. It was, however, most certainly a terrestrial predator, perhaps akin to its closest living relatives, the seriemas.

Ecology

Eutreptornis co-existed with a rich mammalian megafauna, such as the brontothere Megacerops, as well as other terrestrial birds, including other bathornithid birds such as the larger Bathornis species and the flightless crane-like geranoidids.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Joel Cracraft, Systematics and evolution of the Gruiformes (Class Aves). 2, Additional comments on the Bathornithidae, with descriptions of new species. American Museum novitates ; no. 2449
  2. ↑ Benton, R. C.; Terry, D. O.; Evanoff, E.; McDonald, H. G. (25 May 2015). The White River Badlands: Geology and Paleontology. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01608-9.
  3. ↑ Donald Farner, Avian Biology, Elsevier, 02/12/2012
  4. ↑ Joel Cracraft, Systematics and evolution of the Gruiformes (Class Aves). 2, Additional comments on the Bathornithidae, with descriptions of new species. American Museum novitates ; no. 2449
  5. ↑ Joel Cracraft, Systematics and evolution of the Gruiformes (Class Aves). 2, Additional comments on the Bathornithidae, with descriptions of new species. American Museum novitates ; no. 2449
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