Bathornis

Bathornis
Temporal range: Late Eocene - Early Miocene
Hypothetic life restoration of Bathornis grallator, based on known material and modern seriemas.
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cariamiformes
Family: Bathornithidae
Genus: Bathornis
Wetmore, 1927
Type species
Bathornis veredus
Wetmore, 1927
Species

B. celeripes Wetmore, 1933
B. cursor Wetmore, 1933
B. fricki Ostrom, 1961
B. geographicus Wetmore, 1942
B. grallator Olson, 1985
B. minor
B. veredus Wetmore, 1927
and see text.

Synonyms
  • Neocathartes
  • Palaeogyps
  • Palaeocrex

Bathornis ("tall bird") is an extinct lineage of birds related to modern day seriemas, that lived in North America about 37–20 million years ago. Like the closely related and also extinct phorusrhacids, it was a flightless predator, occupying predatory niches in environments classically considered to be dominated by mammals. It was a highly diverse and successful genus, spanning a large number of species that occurred from the Priabonian Eocene to the Burdigalian Miocene epochs.

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