Plesiocathartes

Plesiocathartes Temporal range: Eocene to Oligocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Leptosomiformes
Genus:	† Plesiocathartes Gaillard, 1908 [1]
Type species
†P. europaeus Gaillard, 1908
Other species [2]
†P. gaillardiCrusafont & Villalta, 1955 †P. majorWeidig, 2006 †P. insolitipes Mayr & Kitchener, 2022 †P. kelleri Mayr, 2002 †P. wyomingensisWeidig, 2006

Plesiocathartes is an extinct genus of birds that lived during the Eocene to Oligocene period. It currently presents 5 species from Europe and North America. It was originally described related to New World vultures, but recent studies have uncovered that the genus was more closely related to the cuckoo-roller from Madagascar. ^[3]

References

1. C. Gaillard. 1908. Les oiseaux des phosphorites du Quercy [The birds from the Quercy phosphorites]. Annales de l'Université de Lyon, nouvelle séries. 1. Sciences, Médecine 23:1-178
2. "PBDB Taxon".
3. Mayr, G. (2002). "A new species of Plesiocathartes (Aves: ?Leptosomidae) from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany". PaleoBios. 22: 10–20.

Further reading

• R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 1-698
• J. F. de Villalta. 1963. Las aves fósiles del Mioceno español. Boletin de la Real Socieded Española de Historia Natural 61:263-285
• K. Lambrecht. 1933. Handbuch der Palaeornithologie. 1-1024
• G. Mayr. 2005. The Paleogene fossil record of birds in Europe. Biological Reviews 80:513-542
• G. Mayr and T. Smith. 2019. A diverse bird assemblage from the Ypresian of Belgium furthers knowledge of early Eocene avifaunas of the North Sea Basin. Neus Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen 291(3):253-281