phorusrhacids

I’ve always been very interested in phorusrhacids and, unlike many of the animals I write about (the shame), I have some experience with them.

Archive 2006-10-01 Darren Naish 2006

I’ve always been very interested in phorusrhacids and, unlike many of the animals I write about (the shame), I have some experience with them.

Terror birds Darren Naish 2006

There was no species name listed in the story, but the fossil skull, discovered in Patagonia, is related to an extinct group of birds known as phorusrhacids - "terror birds."

Big Bird 2006

There was no species name listed in the story, but the fossil skull, discovered in Patagonia, is related to an extinct group of birds known as phorusrhacids - "terror birds."

Archive 2006-10-01 2006

The ratites - a group containing everything from the extinct moas to the strange Kiwi of New Zealand - represent another famous flightless lineage, as do the penguins on the extinct "terror birds" properly known as the phorusrhacids of South America.

Wired Top Stories Brian Switek 2011

Scientifically known as phorusrhacids, some 18 known species of these predators evolved about 60 million years ago in South America, confined to what once was an island continent until the last few million years.

Livescience.com 2010

From about 60 million years ago, when they arose, until they went extinct 57 or so million years later, the family of birds known as phorusrhacids spread across South America, ultimately becoming the continent's dominant predator and producing 18 distinct species of big-headed, hook-beaked, flightless predators that could reach 10 ft. in height.

TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

I think that the latter point is significant here, as the posts on eagle owls, phorusrhacids, the Madagascar pochard, and the 10 bird meme were not spin-offs of my own ideas, but were instead initiated by the writings of others.

Archive 2007-01-01 Darren Naish 2007

I think that the latter point is significant here, as the posts on eagle owls, phorusrhacids, the Madagascar pochard, and the 10 bird meme were not spin-offs of my own ideas, but were instead initiated by the writings of others.

Happy first birthday Tetrapod Zoology (part II) Darren Naish 2007

Incidentally, there are unpublished Palaeocene and/or Eocene fragments from England and North America that, inspired by the 1987 identification of Aenigmavis, have also been suggested to be phorusrhacids.

More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006