Phorusrhacos

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Early - Mid Miocene, {{fossil range|20|13}}

| image = Phorusrhacos longissimus skull 824.jpg

| image_caption = Reconstructed skull, Natural History Museum, Karlsruhe

| taxon = Phorusrhacos

| authority = Ameghino, 1887

| type_species = {{extinct}}Phorusrhacos longissimus

| type_species_authority = Ameghino, 1887

| synonyms =

{{collapsible list|bullets = true

|title=Genus synonymy

|Callornis Ameghino, 1895

|Darwinornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Eucallornis Ameghino, 1901

|Liornis Ameghino, 1895

|Owenornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Phororhacos Ameghino, 1889

|Stereornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Titanornis Mercerat, 1893

}}

{{collapsible list|bullets = true

|title=Species synonymy

|Callornis giganteus Ameghino, 1895

|Darwinornis copei Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Darwinornis socialis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Darwinornis zittelli Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Eucallornis giganteus Ameghino, 1901

|Liornis floweri Ameghino, 1895

|Liornis minor Dolgopol de Saez, 1927

|Mesembriornis quatrefragesi Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Mesembriornis studeri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Owenornis affinis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Owenornis lydekkeri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Phororhacos longissimus Ameghino 1889

|Phororhacos platygnathus Ameghino 1891

|Phororhacos sehuensis Ameghino, 1891

|Phororhacos shenensis Ameghino, 1891

|Stereornis gaundryi Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Stereornis rollieri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891

|Titanornis mirabilis Mercerat, 1893

}}

Phorusrhacos ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|f|ɔː|r|ə|s|ˈ|r|ɑː|k|ɒ|s}} {{respell|FOR|əs|RAH|koss}}) is an extinct genus of giant flightless terror birds that inhabited South America during the Miocene epoch. Phorusrhacos was one of the dominant land predators in South America at the time it existed.{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=Hazel |title=Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life |date=2003 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited |location=London |isbn=0-7513-3734-X |page=183}} It is thought to have lived in woodlands and grasslands.

Discovery and naming

File:Phorusrhacos holotype mandible.jpg

Remains are known from several localities in the Santa Cruz Formation and Monte León Formation in Santa Cruz Province, of Argentina.{{cite web |title=Phorusrhacos |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=53560 |website=Fossilworks |access-date=17 December 2021}} Among the bones found in the strata of the Santa Cruz Formations (now considered as mainly of mid-Miocene date) was the piece of a mandible which Florentino Ameghino discovered in early 1887 and the same year at first described as that of an edentate mammal which he named Phorusrhacos longissimus.

The generic name is derived from Greek -φόρος, (-phoros), an element meaning "bearer" in word combinations, and ῥάκος, (rhakos), "rag" or "wrinkle", probably in reference to the wrinkled jaw surface.{{cite web |last1=Creisler |first1=Ben |title=Phorusrhacos "wrinkle bearer (jaw)": Etymology and Meaning |url=http://dml.cmnh.org/2012Jun/msg00306.html |website=Dinosaur Mailing List |access-date=4 July 2012 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029192242/http://dml.cmnh.org/2012Jun/msg00306.html |url-status=dead }} When the original derivation was no longer understood, other translations were given, such as the literal translation of "Rag-Thief",{{cite web |title=Phororhacos |url=http://global-language.com/CENTURY/ |website=Century Dictionary |access-date=22 April 2010 |archive-date=21 April 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010421014116/http://global-language.com/CENTURY/ |url-status=live }} and "branch-holder" from the mistaken assumption the name had been intended to be derived from a Greek rhakis, "branch".{{cite journal |last1=Lydekker |first1=R. |title=On the extinct giant birds of Argentina |date=1893 |journal=Ibis Series |volume= 6 |issue=5 |pages=40–47}} The specific name means "very long" in Latin, again in reference to the lower jaws. The holotype is the mandible, specimen MLP-118 (Museo de La Plata). In 1889 Ameghino emended the name to a more grammatically correct Phororhacos but the earlier name has priority. In 1891, it was by him recognized to be a bird.{{cite journal |last1=Ameghino |first1=F. |title=Mamíferos y aves fósiles argentinas. Especies nuevas, adiciones y correcciones |journal=Revista Argentina de Historia Natural |date=1891 |volume=1 |pages=240–259}}

Description

File:Phorusrhacos longissimusDB24.jpg]]

Phorusrhacos had a skull nearly {{convert|65|cm|in}} long, stood nearly {{convert|2.4|m|sp=us}} tall, and probably weighed nearly {{convert|130|kg|lbs}}, as much as a male ostrich.{{cite book |last1=Croft |first1=Darin A. |title=Horned Armadillos and Rafting Monkeys: The Fascinating Fossil Mammals of South America |date=2016 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0253020840 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOBpDAAAQBAJ&q=Phorusrhacos+skull+65+cm&pg=PA120 |accessdate=30 March 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Alvarenga, Herculano M. F. & Höfling, Elizabeth |title=Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes) |journal=Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia |date=2003 |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=55–91 |doi=10.1590/S0031-10492003000400001 |url=http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_pdf&pid=S0031-10492003000400001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |doi-access=free |access-date=2 July 2006 |archive-date=20 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520065132/http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_pdf&pid=S0031-10492003000400001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |url-status=live }} It had very strong legs, capable of running at high speed, stubby, flightless wings, a long neck, and a proportionately large head. This ended in a huge, hooked beak that could tear through flesh easily, or stab into prey. The lower jaw was smaller than the upper jaw. There were three toes on each of the feet, all of which were armed with sharp claws.

Classification

File:Phorusrhacos skull.jpg

File:Phorusrhacos.jpg, 1901]]

Phorusrhacos was part of the group called the Phorusrhacidae, which is an extinct group of flightless, cursorial carnivorous birds that occupied one of the dominant, large land-predator niches in South America from the lower Eocene to the Pleistocene. They dispersed into North America during the Great American Biotic Interchange (~3 Ma). Some remains from Africa and Europe and the Paleocene of Brazil have been referred to this clade or identified as phylogenetically related to the extant South American seriemas, but these assignments remain controversial.{{cite journal |last1=Federico J. Degrange, Drew Eddy, Pablo Puerta, & Julia Clarke |title=New skull remains of Phorusrhacos longissimus (Aves, Cariamiformes) from the Pleistocene of Argentina: implications for the morphology of Phorusrhacidae |journal=Journal of Paleontology |date=2019 |volume=93 |issue=6 |pages=1221–1233 |doi=10.1017/jpa.2019.53 |bibcode=2019JPal...93.1221D |s2cid=199094122 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334429958 |accessdate=30 March 2020|doi-access=free }}

The following cladogram follows the analysis of Degrange and colleagues, 2015:{{cite journal |last1=Degrange |first1=Federico J. |last2=Tambussi |first2=Claudia P. |last3=Taglioretti |first3=Matías L. |last4=Dondas |first4=Alejandro |last5=Scaglia |first5=Fernando |title=A new Mesembriornithinae (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) provides new insights into the phylogeny and sensory capabilities of terror birds |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |date=2015 |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=e912656 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2014.912656 |bibcode=2015JVPal..35E2656D |hdl=11336/38650 |s2cid=85212917 |url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275272037|hdl-access=free }}

{{clade|style=white-space:nowrap;font-size:85%;line-height:100%

|label1=Phorusrhacidae

|1={{clade

|label1=Mesembriornithinae

|1={{clade

|1=Mesembriornis incertus

|2={{clade

|1=Mesembriornis milneedwardsi

|2={{clade

|1=Llallawavis scagliai

|2=Procariama simplex

}}