Vultur gryphus

The Andean condor is a South American New World vulture and is the only extant member of the genus Vultur. It is found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America. With a maximum wingspan of 3.3 m and weight of 15 kg (33 lb), the Andean condor is one of the largest flying birds in the world, and is generally considered to be the largest bird of prey in the world.

Vultur gryphus

Greg Hume · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
Andean condorPBDB
Sits inside
VulturPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cathartidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Cathartidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Cathartidae

Time the record covers

At least 3.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–917 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences917 ka–733 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences183 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8 Mya129 ka5.5 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Vultur gryphus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

3 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

Tarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°W

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The named rock units Vultur gryphus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vultur gryphus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Vultur gryphus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

286 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Vultur gryphus, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 content2

Picture of Vultur gryphus

Credit
Greg Hume
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Vultur gryphus · USNM:BIRDS:USNM 346633

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 itVultur through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758