Phorusrhacos

Phorusrhacos Fossil range: Early Miocene–Mid Miocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Drawing of Phorusrhacos by Charles R. Knight
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cariamae
Family:	Phorusrhacidae
Genus:	Phorusrhacos Ameghino, 1887
Species:	P. longissimus
Binomial name
Phorusrhacos longissimus Ameghino, 1887
Synonyms
see text

Skull of a Phorusrhacos longissimus. on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Phorusrhacos (pronounced "FOR-rus-RAH-kos") ("Rag-Bearer") was a genus of giant flightless predatory birds that lived in Patagonia, containing the single species Phorusrhacos longissimus. Their closest living relatives are the much smaller seriema birds. The terror birds lived in woodlands and grasslands.

Among the bones found in the stratum of the Santa Cruz Formation (now considered as mainly of mid-Miocene date) was the piece of a mandible which Florentino Ameghino (1887) at first described as that of an edentate mammal. In 1891, it was recognized to be a bird. Remains are known from several localities in the Santa Cruz Province, of Argentina.

Phorusrhacos stood around 2.5 meters (8 ft) tall and weighed approximately 130 kilograms (280 lbs) (Alvarenga & Höfling, 2003). It was nicknamed the "Terror Bird" for obvious reasons: it was one of the largest carnivorous birds to have ever existed, along with Titanis, and its rudimentary wings formed arm-like structures with claws shaped like a meat hook for tackling prey, which was then killed with the massive beak. It ate small mammals and carrion. It is thought^[who?] that the bird grasped its prey with its beak and smashed it to the ground repeatedly like its modern relatives, the seriemas. It had an enormous skull up to sixty centimeters long, armed with a powerful, hook-tipped beak. The structure of the beak and the large claws on the toes show that this was a bird of prey. It raced over the grassy plateaus and hills of Patagonia, catching small reptiles and mammals leaving larger prey to it's far more massive relatives such as Brontornis.

Synonyms

Phorusrhacos longissimus and its genus have been described under a number of synonyms:

Genus-level synonymy:

• Phorusrhacos Ameghino, 1887 (see Anonymous, 1992)
• Phororhacos Ameghino, 1889
• Mesembriornis Moreno, 1889
• Stereornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Darwinornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Owenornis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Titanornis Mercerat, 1893
• Callornis Ameghino, 1895
• Liornis Ameghino, 1895
• Eucallornis Ameghino, 1901

Species-level synonymy:

• Phororhacos longissimus Ameghino, 1889
• Stereornis rollieri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Stereornis gaundryi Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Mesembriornis studeri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Mesembriornis quatrefragesi Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Darwinornis copei Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Darwinornis zittelli Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Darwinornis socialis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Owenornis affinis Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Owenornis lydekkeri Moreno & Mercerat, 1891
• Phororhacos sehuensis Ameghino, 1891
• Phororhacos platygnathus Ameghino, 1891
• Titanornis mirabilis Mercerat, 1893
• Callornis giganteus Ameghino, 1895
• Liornis floweri Ameghino, 1895
• Eucallornis giganteus Ameghino, 1901
• Liornis minor Dolgopol de Saez, 1927

The species Phororhacos inflatus, however, has been re-classified into the genus Patagornis.

In popular culture

Phorusrhacos longissimus

• A stop motion Phorusrhacos under the synonym "Phororhacos" attacks the ship/balloon wreck survivors' camp in the film Mysterious Island (1961 film).

• "Terror Bird" is one of the monsters featured in the D&D accessory Fiend Folio (2003).

• Phorusrhacos was also featured in the CGI series Walking with Beasts and in the series Prehistoric Park. In the Walking with Beasts episode "Sabre-tooth", it is claimed that the phorusrhacids were displaced and eventually became extinct due to competition with sabre-toothed cats immigrating from North America, in spite of the fact that the Great Faunal Interchange took place during the Pliocene, well after Phorusrhacos' extinction during the Miocene (20 million years ago). The species portrayed is Titanis, which, according to the series, is a member of the genus Phorusrhacos; hence the confusion.^[1]

• "Phorusrhacos" is a type of monster in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI.^[2]

• A hunting pair of "Terror Birds" are hunted and killed by the character Odysseus in Dan Simmons' book Ilium and later identified as Phorusrhacos by the character Savi.^[3]

• Phorusrachos is mentioned in The Lost World novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, described in appearance as an 'ostritch with the head of a vulture' and with a beak sharp enough to cleave a slice of rubber off of Professor Challenger's boot.

• A specimen of the bird chases (but does not catch, as a boat is very near) one of the boys of Karel Zeman's Cesta do pravěku (1955) where it is called Phororhacos.

• Also featured in the movie 10,000 BC (2008)
• Ranks No.2 in the The Most Extreme on Awesome Ancestors.

Footnotes

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Alvarenga, Herculano M. F. & Höfling, Elizabeth (2003): Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 43(4): 55-91 PDF fulltext

• Ameghino, Florentino (1887): Enumeración sistemática de las espécies de mamíferos fósiles coleccionados por Carlos Ameghino en los terrenos Eocenos de la Patagonia austral y depositados en el Museo de La Plata. Boletin del Museo de La Plata 1: 1-26. [Article in Spanish]

• Ameghino, Florentino (1889): Contribución al conocimiento de los mamíferos fósiles de la República Argentina. Actas Academia Nacional Ciencias de Córdoba 6: 1-1028. [Article in Spanish]

• Anonymous (1992): Opinion 1687. Phorusrhacos Ameghino, 1887 (Aves, Gruiformes): not suppressed. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 49(2)

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