Eutreptornis Temporal range: Late
Eocene
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Cariamiformes (?) |
Family: | † Bathornithidae (?) |
Genus: | †
Eutreptornis Cracraft, 1971 |
Species: | †E. uintae
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Binomial name | |
†Eutreptornis uintae (Cracraft, 1971)
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Eutreptornis ("changing bird" [1])is a genus of extinct possible cariamiforme bird from the Late Eocene of Utah. It is traditionally considered to be a bathornithid, [2] [3] though a combination of the relative incompleteness of the material alongside some differences from other bathornithids have raised some suspicions about this affiliation. [4] [5]
Eutreptornis is currently represented by a single type species, E. uintae, in turn represented by a tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus from the Uinta Formation of Utah.
It is represented by the smallest bathornithid remains known. [6] Due to the incompleteness of its remains it is unclear whereas it was flightless like other bathornithids. It was, however, most certainly a terrestrial predator, perhaps akin to its closest living relatives, the seriemas.
Eutreptornis co-existed with a rich mammalian megafauna, such as the brontothere Megacerops, as well as other terrestrial birds, including other bathornithid birds such as the larger Bathornis species and the flightless crane-like geranoidids. [7]