A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa
International audience The bird fossil record is globally scarce in Africa. The early Tertiary evolution of terrestrial birds is virtually unknown in that continent. Here, we report on a femur of a large terrestrial new genus discovered from the early or early middle Eocene (between similar to 52 an...
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-00660994 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 |
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ftecolephe:oai:HAL:hal-00660994v1 2024-09-15T18:36:28+00:00 A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile Tabuce, Rodolphe Mahboubi, M'Hammed Adaci, Mohammed Bensalah, Mustapha Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement (LGL-TPE) École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR ISEM) Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Laboratoire de Paléontologie Stratigraphique et Paléoenvironnement Université d'Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed Oran Département des Sciences de la Terre - Laboratoire de recherche n°25 Université Aboubekr Belkaid - University of Belkaïd Abou Bekr Tlemcen 2011-10 https://hal.science/hal-00660994 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 en eng HAL CCSD Springer Verlag info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 hal-00660994 https://hal.science/hal-00660994 doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 ISSN: 0028-1042 EISSN: 1432-1904 The Science of Nature Naturwissenschaften https://hal.science/hal-00660994 The Science of Nature Naturwissenschaften, 2011, 98 (10), pp.815-823. ⟨10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5⟩ Aves Eocene Algeria South America Paleobiogeography Transatlantic dispersal [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2011 ftecolephe https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 2024-07-08T23:40:42Z International audience The bird fossil record is globally scarce in Africa. The early Tertiary evolution of terrestrial birds is virtually unknown in that continent. Here, we report on a femur of a large terrestrial new genus discovered from the early or early middle Eocene (between similar to 52 and 46 Ma) of south-western Algeria. This femur shows all the morphological features of the Phororhacoidea, the so-called Terror Birds. Most of the phororhacoids were indeed large, or even gigantic, flightless predators or scavengers with no close modern analogs. It is likely that this extinct group originated in South America, where they are known from the late Paleocene to the late Pleistocene (similar to 59 to 0.01 Ma). The presence of a phororhacoid bird in Africa cannot be explained by a vicariant mechanism because these birds first appeared in South America well after the onset of the mid-Cretaceous Gondwana break up (similar to 100 million years old). Here, we propose two hypotheses to account for this occurrence, either an early dispersal of small members of this group, which were still able of a limited flight, or a transoceanic migration of flightless birds from South America to Africa during the Paleocene or earliest Eocene. Paleogeographic reconstructions of the South Atlantic Ocean suggest the existence of several islands of considerable size between South America and Africa during the early Tertiary, which could have helped a transatlantic dispersal of phororhacoids Article in Journal/Newspaper South Atlantic Ocean EPHE (Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris): HAL Naturwissenschaften 98 10 815 823 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
EPHE (Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris): HAL |
op_collection_id |
ftecolephe |
language |
English |
topic |
Aves Eocene Algeria South America Paleobiogeography Transatlantic dispersal [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Aves Eocene Algeria South America Paleobiogeography Transatlantic dispersal [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile Tabuce, Rodolphe Mahboubi, M'Hammed Adaci, Mohammed Bensalah, Mustapha A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
topic_facet |
Aves Eocene Algeria South America Paleobiogeography Transatlantic dispersal [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
description |
International audience The bird fossil record is globally scarce in Africa. The early Tertiary evolution of terrestrial birds is virtually unknown in that continent. Here, we report on a femur of a large terrestrial new genus discovered from the early or early middle Eocene (between similar to 52 and 46 Ma) of south-western Algeria. This femur shows all the morphological features of the Phororhacoidea, the so-called Terror Birds. Most of the phororhacoids were indeed large, or even gigantic, flightless predators or scavengers with no close modern analogs. It is likely that this extinct group originated in South America, where they are known from the late Paleocene to the late Pleistocene (similar to 59 to 0.01 Ma). The presence of a phororhacoid bird in Africa cannot be explained by a vicariant mechanism because these birds first appeared in South America well after the onset of the mid-Cretaceous Gondwana break up (similar to 100 million years old). Here, we propose two hypotheses to account for this occurrence, either an early dispersal of small members of this group, which were still able of a limited flight, or a transoceanic migration of flightless birds from South America to Africa during the Paleocene or earliest Eocene. Paleogeographic reconstructions of the South Atlantic Ocean suggest the existence of several islands of considerable size between South America and Africa during the early Tertiary, which could have helped a transatlantic dispersal of phororhacoids |
author2 |
Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement (LGL-TPE) École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR ISEM) Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Laboratoire de Paléontologie Stratigraphique et Paléoenvironnement Université d'Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed Oran Département des Sciences de la Terre - Laboratoire de recherche n°25 Université Aboubekr Belkaid - University of Belkaïd Abou Bekr Tlemcen |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile Tabuce, Rodolphe Mahboubi, M'Hammed Adaci, Mohammed Bensalah, Mustapha |
author_facet |
Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile Tabuce, Rodolphe Mahboubi, M'Hammed Adaci, Mohammed Bensalah, Mustapha |
author_sort |
Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile |
title |
A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
title_short |
A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
title_full |
A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
title_fullStr |
A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa |
title_sort |
phororhacoid bird from the eocene of africa |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00660994 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 |
genre |
South Atlantic Ocean |
genre_facet |
South Atlantic Ocean |
op_source |
ISSN: 0028-1042 EISSN: 1432-1904 The Science of Nature Naturwissenschaften https://hal.science/hal-00660994 The Science of Nature Naturwissenschaften, 2011, 98 (10), pp.815-823. ⟨10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 hal-00660994 https://hal.science/hal-00660994 doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5 |
container_title |
Naturwissenschaften |
container_volume |
98 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
815 |
op_container_end_page |
823 |
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1810480139575754752 |