The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widespread in both the Old World and North America during the Neogene.
The turkey vulture is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus Cathartes of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including subtropical forests, shrublands, pastures, and deserts.
The black vulture, also known as the American black vulture, Mexican vulture, zopilote, urubu, or gallinazo, is a bird in the New World vulture family whose range extends from the northeastern United States to Perú, Central Chile and Uruguay in South America. Although a common and widespread species, it has a somewhat more restricted distribution than its compatriot, the turkey vulture, which breeds well into Canada and all the way south to Tierra del Fuego. It is the only extant member of the genus Coragyps, which is in the family Cathartidae. Despite the similar name and appearance, this species is unrelated to the Eurasian black vulture, an Old World vulture, of the family Accipitridae. For ease of locating animal corpses, black vultures tend to inhabit relatively open areas with scattered trees, such as chaparral, in addition to subtropical forested areas and parts of the Brazilian pantanal.
Gymnogyps is a genus of New World vultures in the family Cathartidae. There are five known species in the genus, with only one being extant, the California condor.
The Cuban giant owl or giant cursorial owl (Ornimegalonyx) is an extinct genus of giant owl that measured 1.1 metres in height. It is closely related to the many species of living owls of the genus Strix. It was a flightless or nearly flightless bird and it is believed to be the largest owl that ever existed. It lived on the island of Cuba.
The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. The three extant species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas. There is one extinct species known from the Quaternary of Cuba.
The lesser yellow-headed vulture also known as the savannah vulture, is a species of bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae. It was considered to be the same species as the greater yellow-headed vulture until they were split in 1964. It is found in Mexico, Central America, and South America in seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, and heavily degraded former forest. It is a large bird, with a wingspan of 150–165 cm (59–65 in). The body plumage is black, and the head and neck, which are featherless, are pale orange with red or blue areas. It lacks a syrinx, so therefore its vocalizations are limited to grunts or low hisses.
Burnet Cave is an important archaeological and paleontological site located in Eddy County, New Mexico, United States within the Guadalupe Mountains about 26 miles west of Carlsbad.
The Jamaican ibis, Jamaican flightless ibis or clubbed-wing ibis is an extinct bird species of the ibis subfamily uniquely characterized by its club-like wings. It is the only species in the genus Xenicibis, and one of only two flightless ibis genera, the other being the genus Apteribis which was endemic to Hawaii's islands of Maui Nui.
Gymnogyps varonai, sometimes called the Cuban condor, is an extinct species of large New World vulture in the family Cathartidae. G. varonai is related to the living California condor, G. californianus and the extinct G. kofordi, either one of which it may have evolved from. The species is solely known from fossils found in the late Pleistocene to early Holocene tar seep deposits in Cuba. G. varonai may have preyed upon carcasses from large mammals such as ground sloths.
Phasmagyps, is an extinct genus of New World vulture in the family Cathartidae, known from one Oligocene fossil found in Colorado. The genus contains a single described species, Phasmagyps patritus which is possibly the oldest New World vulture known, though its placement in the family Cathartidae has been questioned.
Breagyps is an extinct genus of New World vulture in the family Cathartidae.
The pristine mustached bat is an extinct Late Quaternary species of bat in the endemic Neotropical family Mormoopidae. It was distributed in Cuba and possibly Florida.
A list of prehistoric and extinct species whose fossils have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits, located in present-day Hancock Park, a city park on the Miracle Mile section of the Mid-Wilshire district in Los Angeles, California.
Gymnogyps amplus is an extinct species of large New World vulture in the family Cathartidae. The species was first described by Loye H. Miller (1911) in 1911 from a partial tarsometatarsus recovered from Pleistocene cave deposits in Samwel Cave of northern California. Harvey I. Fisher (1944) designated a set of plesiotypes from the Rancho La Brea which includes a cranium, rostrum, and mandible.
Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata was a Cuban paleontologist. He described a number of birds and mammals of the Quaternary Period from fossils obtained from Cuban caves. He has been called the "father of Cuban vertebrate paleontology".
Coragyps occidentalis, the Pleistocene black vulture, is an extinct species of New World vulture that lived throughout North and South America during the Pleistocene. It was formerly thought to be the ancestor to the modern black vulture, but is now thought to have evolved from it; the modern black vulture is paraphyletic with respect to it.
Dryornis, also called the Argentinian vulture, is an extinct genus of cathartid, known from Argentina. The genus contains two species, D. pampeanus and D. hatcheri.
