Aquila bullockensis

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Aquila bullockensis
Temporal range: Middle Miocene 11–5  Ma
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Aquila
Species:
A. bullockensis
Binomial name
Aquila bullockensis
Gaff & Boles, 2010

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]

Contents

History and classification

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]

Description

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]

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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.

Arm Proximal part of the free upper limb between the shoulder and the elbow

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.

Accipitridae Family of birds of prey

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.

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Brachialis muscle

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Gaff, P.; Boles, W.E. (2010). "A New Eagle (Aves: Accipitridae) from the Mid Miocene Bullock Creek Fauna of Northern Australia". Records of the Australian Museum. 62: 71–76. doi: 10.3853/j.0067-1975.62.2010.1557 .