Phorusrhacids: The terror birds

ALVARENGA, H.; CHIAPPE, L.M.; BERTELLI, S.

Living Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds

John Wiley & Sons

Lugar: London; Año: 2011; p. 187 - 208

At the beginning of the Tertiary, while mammals were undergoing an evolutionary explosion, several groups of birds developed a tendency to gigantism. These groups were scattered across almost the whole planet.The Phorusrhacidae, another group of giants was present in South America from the Paleocene and survived until the end of the Pleistocene.In this chapter, our main objective is to present a phylogenetic analysis of the Phorusrhacidae, and at the same time call attention to anatomic details that need further clarification in these birds.