Phorusrhacos

Common card · No. 287751

Phorusrhacos (meaning "bearer of scars" or "bearer of wrinkles") is an extinct genus of phorusrhacid, a group of predatory flightless birds commonly known as terror birds. It lived during the Early to Middle Miocene, approximately 18–13 million years ago, in what is now southern Argentina. The first fossil attributed to the genus, an isolated fragment of the mandible (lower jaw), was discovered in 1887 by Argentine paleontologist Carlos Ameghino in sediments of the Santa Cruz Formation in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Later that year, his brother, Florentino Ameghino, formally described the specimen as the new genus and species Phorusrhacos longissimus. Florentino initially interpreted the fossil as belonging to a giant, toothless sloth and assigned the genus to its own family, Phorusrhacidae. In 1891, however, Argentine naturalist Francisco Moreno recognized that the specimen was avian rather than mammalian. Since its initial description, Phorusrhacos has become one of the best-known...

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