Re:Giant birds

["João S. Lopes Filho" <jodan99@uol.com.br>]

The correct is Phorusrachus.
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Mellor <patrickmellor@hotmail.com>
To: <Jean-Michel.BENOIT@gemplus.com>; <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 9:51 AM
Subject: Re:Giant birds


> Dear DML listmembers, I'd like to know a couple of things : are the early
> tertiary "thunder-birds" ( eg *phororhaschus* ) related to ratites? And
> when did the ratites branch off from the original bird lineage? Is there
> any tree showing the relationships between these birds,the ratites  and
> the theropods?
>
> Thanks in advance for the answers
> Jean-Michel BENOIT
>
> *Phororaschus* is not early tertiary, it lived in Pliocene South america
> along with the other phororaschid predatory ground birds. Most of these
> became extinct in the great faunal interchange co-incident with the
> formation of the Panama land bridge between north and south america.
> Phorosraschids were bnot related to ratites, I think they were Gruiformes
> (cranes and rails). One of the phororaschids didn't go extinct in the
G.F.I,
> but migrated into north america and was probably killed by humans in the
> late Pleistocene (overkill) extinction (about 12000 YBP). This was
> *Titanis*, about 3 metres high, and very interesting because its highly
> derived wings had claws and were similar to theropod arms. There were
other
> large ground predatory birds that WERE early tertiary, and these lived in
> europe, but I am not sure of their phylogenetic position. The third group
> was the bullokornids of Plio/Pleistocene Australia, again probably made
> extinct through early human action (eg *Bullokornis planei*).
>
> Patrick Mellor
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