The American horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus Bubo, at least as traditionally described. The genus name Bubo is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl.
The New World vulture or condor family Cathartidae contains seven species in five genera, all but one of which are monotypic. It includes five vultures and two 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 California condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. This condor became extinct in the wild in 1987, but the species has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah, the coastal mountains of central and southern California, and northern Baja California. Although other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps. The species is listed by the IUCN as critically endangered.
The black geese of the genus Branta are waterfowl belonging to the true geese and swans subfamily Anserinae. They occur in the northern coastal regions of the Palearctic and all over North America, migrating to more southernly coasts in winter, and as resident birds in the Hawaiian Islands. Alone in the Southern Hemisphere, a self-sustaining feral population derived from introduced Canada geese is also found in New Zealand.
Anas is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was spit into four separate genera. The genus now contains 31 living species. The name Anas is the Latin for "duck".
Podiceps is a genus of birds in the grebe family. The genus name comes from Latin podicis, "vent" and pes, "foot", and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body.
Teratornithidae is an extinct family of very large birds of prey that lived in North and South America from the Late Oligocene to Late Pleistocene. They include some of the largest known flying birds.
Mycteria is a genus of large tropical storks with representatives in the Americas, east Africa and southern and southeastern Asia. Two species have "ibis" in their scientific or old common names, but they are not related to these birds and simply look more similar to an ibis than do other storks.
Ciconia is a genus of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the maguari stork has a South American range. In addition, fossils suggest that Ciconia storks were somewhat more common in the tropical Americas in prehistoric times.
Teratornis was a huge North American bird of prey – the best-known of the teratorns. A large number of fossil and subfossil bones, representing more than 100 individuals, have been found in locations in California, Oregon, southern Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, though most are from the Californian La Brea Tar Pits. All remains except one Early Pleistocene partial skeleton from the Leisey Shell Pit near Charlotte Harbor, Florida date from the Late Pleistocene, with the youngest remains dating from the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.
Meleagridinae is a subfamily of birds in the family Phasianidae. It includes turkeys and their extinct relatives.
Ninjemys oweni is an extinct large meiolaniid stem-turtle from Pleistocene Queensland (Australia). It resembled its larger relative, Meiolania, save that the largest pair of horns on its head stuck out to the sides, rather than point backwards.
The cacholotes are four species of relatively large, heavy-billed Furnariids in the genus Pseudoseisura. They are found in shrubby habitats in the South American countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. They are essentially brown, and all are crested to some extent.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1959.
Oraristix brea, the Brea owl, is an extinct owl reported from the upper Pleistocene asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, California. It was first described in 1933 by Hildegarde Howard as Strix brea, but this extinct owl was recently placed into its own genus by Campbell and Bocheński (2010). The Brea owl has also been found in the upper Pleistocene asphalt deposits of Carpinteria, California. Oraristrix brea is interpreted as more terrestrial in habits than forest owls because, compared to North American species of Bubo and Strix, it had longer legs relative to its wingspan.
Gymnogyps varonai, sometimes called the Cuban condor, is an extinct species of large New World vultures in the family Cathartidae. G. varonai is related to the living California condor, G. californianus and the extinct G. kofordi either 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.
Herculano Marcos Ferraz de Alvarenga is a Brazilian ornithologist, paleontologist and physician, founder of the Taubaté Natural History Museum.
Pseudoseisuropsis is a genus of extinct birds in the ovenbird family from the Pleistocene of Argentina and Uruguay. The genus was described in 1991 based on disarticulated skeletal elements and a nearly-complete skull. Although originally believed to be closely related to the extant genus Pseudoseisura, phylogenetic analyses suggested a more basal origin within the family.
Pleistovultur is an extinct genus of large Cathartid from the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene of South America. The type species P. nevesi was described based in a complete and well preserved right tibiotarsus from the Cuvieri cave deposits in Lagoa Santa region in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. It was larger than Sarcoramphus papa, but smaller than Vultur gryphus.
