New World vulture
The New World vulture
family Cathartidae contains seven species found in warm and temperate areas of the
Americas. It includes five
vultures and two
condors. Except Cathartes, all genera are monotypic.
The five species of vulture are:
*
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
*Greater Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes melambrotus
*Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes burrovianus
*
King Vulture Sarcorhamphus papa
*
American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
The
Condors are
*
California Condor Gymnogyps californianus
Encyclopedia
The
New World vulture family Cathartidae contains seven species found in warm and temperate areas of the
Americas. It includes five
vultures and two
condors. Except
Cathartes, all genera are monotypic.
The five species of vulture are:
The
Condors are
Evolution and systematics
New World vultures are most probably not closely related to Old World vultures or other diurnal
raptors, which themselves are often classified in different orders. They rather resemble Old World vultures because of
convergent evolution and are usually considered to be more closely related to
storks, as is reflected by their placement in the
Ciconiiformes.
A related extinct family were the Teratornithidae or
Teratorns, essentially an exclusively American counterpart to the New World vultures - the latter were, in prehistoric times, also present in Europe and possibly even evolved there. The Incredible Teratorn is sometimes called "Giant Condor" because it must have looked similar to the modern bird. They were, however, not very closely related but rather an example of
parallel evolution, and the external similarity is less emphasized in recent times due to new information suggesting that the teratorns were more predatory than vultures .
The fossil history of the Cathartidae is fairly extensive, but nonetheless confusing. Many taxa that may or may not have been New World vultures were considered to be early representatives of the family. There is no unequivocal European record fom the Neogene and trying to retrace the evolutionary history of the entire Ciconiiformes
sensu Sibley & Ahlquist by means of molecular analysis has proven to be just as equivocal until the mid-
2000s.
At any rate, the Cathartidae had a much higher diversity in the
Plio-/
Pleistocene, rivalling the current diversity of Old World vultures and their relatives in shapes, sizes, and ecological niches. Extinct genera are:
- Diatropornis
- Phasmagyps
- Brasilogyps
- Hadrogyps
- Pliogyps
- Perugyps
- Dryornis
- Aizenogyps
- Breagyps
- Geronogyps
- Wingegyps
- Parasarcoramphus
Fossils found in
Mongolia , Lee Creek Mine, USA and
Argentina have not been assigned to a genus yet. There is also a number of extinct congeners of the extant species; see the respective genus accounts.
An European genus from the Earliest Neogene that possibly belongs to the New World vultures is
Plesiocathartes. On the other hand, the bathornithid
Neocathartes was long believed to be a peculiar New World vulture .
References
- Campbell, Kenneth E. Jr. & Tonni, E. P. : Size and locomotion in teratorns. Auk 100: 390-403
External links
- on the Internet Bird Collection
