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Ancient bird found in Australia and thought to be eagle is a vulture
In a case of mistaken identity, a new study reveals that a fossilized bird long thought to be an eagle is actually a vulture.
The fossil has been held at the South Australian Museum for more than 100 years, where it has been known as Taphaetus lacertosus, meaning ‘powerful grave eagle.’
However, a new analysis by researchers from Flinders University has confirmed that the bird is a vulture that roamed Australia 500 to 50 thousand years ago.
The team has now renamed the bird Cryptogyps lacertosus, meaning ‘powerful hidden vulture’.
Vultures play a key role in ecosystems
The vulture existed alongside huge herbivores such as Diprotodon as well as ferocious carnivores such as Thylacoleo.
Vultures play a key role in ecosystems by munching on carcasses and reducing the spread of diseases.
‘The discovery solves a mystery of what happened to so many megafaunal carcasses when the continent didn’t have vultures,’ said Dr Trevor Worth, senior author of the study.
‘Now we know they were here. They’ve been hidden in plain sight.’
‘Today we’re familiar with a wedge-tailed eagle picking at a kangaroo carcass on the roadside,’ said lead author Dr Ellen Mather.
‘Thousands of years ago, a very different bird would have filled the role of carrion consumer – one most people would now associate with the plains of Africa.’
The first bone of the bird – a fragment of a wing bone – was found near Kalamurina Homestead on the Warburton River in South Australia in 1901.
It was first described as an eagle in 1905 by English ornithologist Charles Walter de Vis, who was living in Queensland at the time.
He believed it to be an extinct relative of the wedge-tailed eagle.
In the new study, the team compared the fossil to birds of prey from around the world, with the aim of confirming or rejecting de Vis’ findings.
‘We compared the fossil material to birds of prey from around the world, and it became clear right away that this bird was not adapted to being a hunter, and so was not a hawk or an eagle,’ Dr Mather explained.
‘The features of the lower leg bone are too underdeveloped to support the musculature needed for killing prey.
‘When we placed Cryptogyps in an evolutionary tree, this confirmed our suspicions that the bird was a vulture, and we are very excited to finally publish on this species.’
The findings were confirmed when Dr Mather associated newly recognized fossil material from the Wellington Caves in New South Wales and Leaena’s Breath Cave in Western Australia with the fossil from Kalamurina.
The now-extinct vulture lived alongside huge marsupial herbivores such as Diprotodon, as well as ferocious marsupial carnivores, such as Thylacoleo, according to the researchers.
Vultures play a key role in ecosystems by munching on carcasses and reducing the spread of diseases.
‘The discovery solves a mystery of what happened to so many megafaunal carcasses when the continent didn’t have vultures,’ said Dr Trevor Worth, senior author of the study.
‘Now we know they were here. They’ve been hidden in plain sight.’
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