Paleopsilopterus
Encyclopedia
Paleopsilopterus is an extinct genus
of giant flightless predatory bird
s of the family
Phorusrhacidae
or "terror birds" and the subfamily of the psilopterinae that lived 60 million years ago in Brazil
during the middle paleocene
. The only known species is Paleopsilopterus itaboraiensis.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of giant flightless predatory bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Phorusrhacidae
Phorusrhacidae
Phorusrhacids , colloquially known as "terror birds" as the larger species were apex predators during the Miocene, were a clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the dominant predators in South America during the Cenozoic, 62–2 million years ago. They were roughly 1–3 meters tall...
or "terror birds" and the subfamily of the psilopterinae that lived 60 million years ago in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
during the middle paleocene
Paleocene
The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...
. The only known species is Paleopsilopterus itaboraiensis.