Aquila bullockensis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Accipitriformes |
Family: | Accipitridae |
Genus: | Aquila |
Species: | A. bullockensis |
Binomial name | |
Aquila bullockensis | |
Aquila bullockensis is an extinct species of large true eagles in the family Accipitridae. [1] A. bullockensis is related to the living species A. audax to which it might be ancestral. The species is solely known from the distal end of a right humerus found in the Middle Miocene (about 12 Ma), Bullock Creek deposits in Australia. A. bullockensis is the oldest confirmed record of the genus Aquila in Australia, and possibly in the world. [1]
The species is known solely from the holotype specimen, number QVM:2000:GFV:154, the distal end of a right humerus, conserved in the collections housed by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania. [1] The specimen was collected from Bullock Creek exposures of the Camfield Fossil Beds, located 550 kilometres (550,000 m) south-southeast of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The bone was first studied by a pair of researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria and led by Priscilla Gaff as part of her master's thesis. Gaff and Walter E. Boles published their 2010 type description in the Records of the Australian Museum . [1] The specific epithet "bullockensis" was chosen by the authors in recognition of the type locality, with the Latin ensis meaning "belonging to". [1]
Within the possible bird families that the holotype may belong, it is distinguished from the old-world buzzards (Aegypiinae) and eagle-vultures (Gypaetinae) by its shallow fossa m. brachialis, a more bulbous processus flexorius and a broader condylus dorsalis. [1] These features also distinguish the bone from Ospreys. Within the family Accipitridae the bone is similar to the genera Hieraaetus and Aquila . The two genera are very similar in morphology, and separation of the two is very difficult; they may be merged in the future. However the bone is closer in appearance to the modern species Aquila audax , Aquila chrysaetos and Aquila fasciata though is distinct enough to be considered a separate species. On the fossil the tuberculum supracondylare ventrale is flat unlike that of the modern species. [1]
The humerus is 27.7 millimetres (1.09 in) wide on the distal end, while the shaft is broken off and missing above the fossa m. brachialis but enough bone is present to show that the shaft is curved. A. bullockensis was smaller in size then A. audax, A. chrysaetos and larger than A. fasciata. Though many members of Aquila display sexual dimorphism, the size of humerus is not a distinct feature. [1]
Aquila bullockensis is one of the oldest members of the genus. The two species A. delphinensis and A. pennatoides which are from deposits in Grive-Saint-Alban, France, were described by Claude Gaillard in 1938 and also date to the Middle to Late Miocene. Of the other known Accipitridae bones from the Bullock Creek deposits several may belong to A. bullockensis, but none have been studied in depth to date. [1]
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 60 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just 14 species can be found—2 in North America, 9 in Central and South America, and 3 in Australia. It is nicknamed the king of all birds.
In human anatomy, the arm is the part of the upper limb between the glenohumeral joint and the elbow joint. In common usage, the arm extends through the hand. It can be divided into the upper arm, which extends from the shoulder to the elbow, the forearm which extends from the elbow to the hand, and the hand. Anatomically the shoulder girdle with bones and corresponding muscles is by definition a part of the arm. The Latin term brachium may refer to either the arm as a whole or to the upper arm on its own.
The Accipitridae, one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, are a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-sized mammals, with a number feeding on carrion and a few feeding on fruit. The Accipitridae have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found on all the world's continents and a number of oceanic island groups. Some species are migratory.
The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, Anhinga. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. The term snakebird is usually used without any additions to signify whichever of the completely allopatric species occurs in any one region. It refers to their long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when they swim with their bodies submerged, or when mated pairs twist it during their bonding displays. "Darter" is used with a geographical term when referring to particular species. It alludes to their manner of procuring food, as they impale fishes with their thin, pointed beak. The American darter is more commonly known as the anhinga. It is sometimes called "water turkey" in the southern United States; though the anhinga is quite unrelated to the wild turkey, they are both large, blackish birds with long tails that are sometimes hunted for food.
The humerus is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a rounded head, a narrow neck, and two short processes. The body is cylindrical in its upper portion, and more prismatic below. The lower extremity consists of 2 epicondyles, 2 processes, and 3 fossae. As well as its true anatomical neck, the constriction below the greater and lesser tubercles of the humerus is referred to as its surgical neck due to its tendency to fracture, thus often becoming the focus of surgeons.
The brachialis is a muscle in the upper arm that flexes the elbow joint. It lies deeper than the biceps brachii, and makes up part of the floor of the region known as the cubital fossa. The brachialis is the prime mover of elbow flexion. While the biceps brachii appears as a large anterior bulge on the arm and commands considerable interest among body builders, the brachialis underlying it actually generates about 50% more power and is thus the prime mover of elbow flexion.
Aquila is the genus of true eagles. The genus name is Latin for "eagle", possibly derived from aquilus, "dark in colour". It is often united with the buteos, sea eagles, and other more heavyset Accipitridae, but more recently they appear to be less distinct from the more slender accipitrine hawks than previously believed. Eagles are not a natural group, but denote essentially any bird of prey large enough to hunt sizeable vertebrate prey.
Huabeisaurus was a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. It was a sauropod which lived in what is present-day northern China. The type species, Huabeisaurus allocotus, was first described by Pang Qiqing and Cheng Zhengwu in 2000. Huabeisaurus is known from numerous remains found in the 1990s, which include teeth, partial limbs and vertebrae. Due to its relative completeness, Huabeisaurus represents a significant taxon for understanding sauropod evolution in Asia. Huabeisaurus comes from Kangdailiang and Houyu, Zhaojiagou Town, Tianzhen County, Shanxi province, China. The holotype was found in the unnamed upper member of the Huiquanpu Formation, which is Late Cretaceous (?Cenomanian–?Campanian) in age based on ostracods, charophytes, and fission-track dating.
The genus Hieraaetus, sometimes known as hawk-eagles, denotes a group of smallish eagles usually placed in the accipitrid subfamilies Buteoninae or Aquilinae.
Buteogallus borrasi is a species of giant buteonine hawk which went extinct in the early Holocene. Formerly endemic to Cuba, this huge bird of prey probably fed on Pleistocene megafauna. Little is known about its appearance and ecology, so no common name has been given.
Odontopteryx is a genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds or pelagornithids. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks, or of waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty.
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Radiodactylus is an extinct genus of non-azhdarchid azhdarchoid pterosaur known from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now Texas, southern United States. It contains a single species, Radiodactylus langstoni.
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