Patagornis marshi

Patagornis is a genus of phorusrhacid, an extinct clade of flightless birds, that lived in present-day Argentina during the Miocene age of the Neogene period. The taxonomic history of the genus is long and convoluted. It was described by Argentine paleontologists Francisco Moreno and Alcides Mercerat in 1891. The genus contains one species, P. marshi, named based on a premaxilla fragment and some incomplete postcranial remains. These fossils were unearthed by an expedition to strata of the Santa Cruz Formation in Santa Cruz Province, southern Argentina. This formation dates to the early-mid section of the Miocene, which makes it around 17.5 to 11.6 million years old. Also in 1891, Moreno's scientific rival, Argentine naturalist Florentino Ameghino, named his own genus and species, Tolmodus inflatus, on the basis of a premaxilla fragment as well. Ameghino also described several well-preserved specimens of Patagornis. After realizing that they came from the same taxon, paleontologists still opted to use the name Tolmodus over Patagornis despite the fact that, according to the rules of the ICZN, Patagornis marshi was the correct name. In 2003, Brazilian paleontologist Herculano Alvarenga and German paleontologist Elizabeth Höfling revalidated Patagornis as the correct name. Although, some scientists still use Tolmodus instead.

Patagornis marshi

C. W. Andrews · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PatagornisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Phorusrhacidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Phorusrhacidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Phorusrhacidae

Time the record covers

At most 6.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 20.45 Mya and 13.82 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 7 of 7 occurrencesMiocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20.9 Mya13.3 Mya

7 occurrences of Patagornis marshi on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Santa Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.10°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.97°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WCerro Boleadoras — 47.00°S, 71.62°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Patagornis marshi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Patagornis marshi and its relatives

Miocene

Where Patagornis marshi and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

111 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Patagornis marshi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Patagornis marshi

Credit
C. W. Andrews
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Patagornis marshi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPatagornis through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Moreno and Mercerat 1891