Published July 20, 2022
| Version v1
Taxonomic treatment
Open
Accipitridae Vigors 1824
- 1. Palaeontology Group, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, GPO 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia & ellen. mather @ flinders. edu. au, math 0083 @ flinders. edu. au, https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 9437 - 1395
- 2. Palaeontology Group, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, GPO 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia & Earth Sciences Section, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000, Australia & mike. lee @ flinders. edu. au; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 3905 - 0887
- 3. Palaeontology Group, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, GPO 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia & trevor. worthy @ flinders. edu. au; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 7047 - 4680
Description
Pleistocene Australian Accipitridae
Throughout most of Australia, the Pleistocene (2.56 Ma–11.7 Ka) epoch was marked by arid climatic conditions, with the environment dominated by grasslands, open woodland (Sniderman et al. 2007) and desert (Hesse et al. 2004), similar to the present day. The Australian megafauna, which included at least 20 genera of large mammals, four of large birds, and three of large reptiles (Wroe et al. 2013; Johnson et al. 2021), inhabited these environments until most of them went extinct between 50–40 Ka (Roberts et al. 2001; van der Kaars et al. 2017). The raptor guild of the Pleistocene can be assumed to have comprised most of the living Australian species, with fossil material of Aquila audax (Latham) (Wedge- tailed Eagle) at least 500–200 Ka old (Baird 1991; EKM, THW unpublished data). However, two extinct species that represent potential additional diversity have been described from this epoch; Aquila brachialis (de Vis, 1889) and “ Taphaetus ” lacertosus de Vis, 1905 (Gaff 2002 unpublished thesis; Boles 2006, 2017; Worthy & Nguyen 2020).
Notes
Published as part of Mather, Ellen K., Lee, Michael S. Y. & Worthy, Trevor H., 2022, A new look at an old Australian raptor places " Taphaetus " lacertosus de Vis 1905 in the Old World vultures (Accipitridae: Aegypiinae), pp. 1-23 in Zootaxa 5168 (1) on page 1, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5168.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6876161
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Scientific name authorship
- Vigors
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Taxon rank
- family
- Taxonomic concept label
- Accipitridae Vigors, 1824 sec. Mather, Lee & Worthy, 2022
References
- Sniderman, J. M. K., Pillans, B., O'Sullivan, P. B. & Kershaw, A. P. (2007) Climate and vegetation in southeastern Australia respond to Southern Hemisphere insolation forcing in the late Pliocene - early Pleistocene. Geology, 35, 41 - 44. https: // doi. org / 10.1130 / G 23247 A. 1
- Hesse, P. P., Magee, J. W. & van der Kaars, S. (2004) Late Quaternary environments of the Australian arid zone: a review. Quaternary International, 118 - 119, 87 - 102. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / S 1040 - 6182 (03) 00132 - 0
- Wroe, S., Field, J. H., Archer, M., Grayson, D. K., Price, G. J., Louys, J., Faith, J. T., Webb, G. E., Davidson, I. & Mooney, S. D. (2013) Climate change frames debate over the extinction of megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (22), 8777 - 8781. https: // doi. org / 10.1073 / pnas. 1302698110
- Johnson, C. N., Dortch, J. & Worthy, T. H. (2021) Interactions with megafauna. In: The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [online version] https: // doi. org / 10.1093 / oxfordhb / 9780190095611.013.10
- Roberts, R. G., Flannery, T. F., Ayliffe, L. K., Yoshida, H., Olley, J. M., Prideaux, G. J., Laslett, G. M., Baynes, A., Smith, M. A., Jones, R. & Smith, B. L. (2001) New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago. Science, 292, 1888 - 1892. https: // doi. org / 10.1126 / science. 1060264
- van der Kaars, S., Miller, G. H., Turney, C. S. M., Cook, E. J., Nurnberg, D., Schonfeld, J., Kershaw, A. P. & Lehman, S. J. (2017) Humans rather than climate the primary cause of Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in Australia. Nature Communications, 8 (1), 1 - 7. https: // doi. org / 10.1038 / ncomms 14142
- Baird, R. F. (1991) The Quaternary Avifauna of Australia. In: Vickers-Rich, P., Monahan, J. M., Baird, R. F. & Rich, T. H. (Eds.), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia. Pioneer Design Studio, Melbourne, pp. 809 - 870.
- de Vis, C. W. (1889) Addition to the list of fossil birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 6, 55 - 58.
- de Vis, C. W. (1905) A contribution to the knowledge of the extinct avifauna of Australia. Annals of the Queensland Museum, 6, 3 - 25.
- Gaff, P. (2002) The fossil history of the family Accipitridae in Australia. Unpublished Master of Science thesis, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Available from: https: // scholar. archive. org / work / uk 4 xt 4 m 66 vdjrirruu 6 bxo 4 yra / access / wayback / https: // au-east. erc. monash. edu. au / fpfiles / 22806080 / GAFF 2001 _ 2002. pdf (accessed 27 June 2022)
- Boles, W. E. (2006) The Avian Fossil Record of Australia: An Overview. In: Merrick, J. R., Archer, M., Hickey, G. M. & Lee, M. S. Y. (Eds.), Evolution and Biogeography of Australasian Vertebrates. Auscipub, Oatlands, New South Wales, pp. 387 - 411.
- Boles, W. E. (2017) A Brief History of Avian Paleontology in Australia. In: Davis Jr., W. E., Boles, W. E. & Recher, H. F. (Eds.), Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology, Vol. III. Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 265 - 362.
- Worthy, T. H. & Nguyen, J. M. T. (2020) An annotated checklist of the fossil birds of Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Australia, 144 (1), 66 - 108. https: // doi. org / 10.1080 / 03721426.2020.1756560