Other schemes place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae. It has always presented something of a riddle to taxonomists, but here it is treated as the sole living member of the family Pandionidae, and the family listed in its traditional place as part of the order Accipitriformes. The genus Pandion was described by the French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. The genus, Pandion, is the sole member of the family Pandionidae, and used to contain only one species, the osprey ( P. The osprey was described by Carl Linnaeus under the name Falco haliaeetus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. Its unique characteristics classify it in its own taxonomic genus, Pandion, and family, Pandionidae. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and unique behaviour in hunting its prey. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.Īs its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. “There may be much more that the site will teach us about Europe’s distant past,” Zelenkov said.The osprey ( / ˈ ɒ s p r i, - p r eɪ/ Pandion haliaetus), also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. “Although there is no evidence yet, this bird might have been spread across more western territories,” Zelenkov said.Įxcavations at the site have also uncovered the remains of a bison and a mammoth, and field studies at the site are expected to continue for some time yet. How common the big birds were across Europe is unknown and a question that future expeditions will now seek to answer. The Taurida cave where the latest bones were found was discovered only last year during the construction of a motorway that will link Simferopol, a city in the heart of the Crimean peninsula, to the city of Kerch in the east. Its name, Vorombe titan, means “big bird” in a mixture of Malagasy and Greek. They set out with a tape measure and a pair of callipers to measure hundreds of bird bones in museums around the world and came across one creature from Madagascar that stood three metres tall and weighed up to 800kg. Scientists have argued over the identity of the world’s largest bird for decades, but last year researchers at the Zoological Society of London attempted to settle the matter. Also known as thunderbirds, the beasts are thought to have survived until at least 50,000 years ago. Technically known as Bullockornis planei but named the “demon duck of doom” by a researcher with an eye for publicity, the bird sported a scythe-like beak on a head the size of a horse’s. When fully grown, some species reached three metres tall.Ī similar-sized feathery beast brought terror to the rainforests of Australia’s Northern Territory 15m years ago. The apparently herbivorous Gastornithidae, a family of prehistoric flightless birds with powerful legs and enormous beaks, stalked Europe, Asia and North America, from 66m to 35m years ago. All could take on prey as large as mammoths.Įvolution has decorated the tree of life with a bizarre collection of bulky birds. Other remains recovered from the cave offer some explanation as to why that may have helped: the giant bird lived alongside some of the most formidable predators of the Ice Age, from sabre-toothed cats to other over-sized carnivores, including giant cheetahs and giant hyenas. “They would have been seen by various Homo erectus people.”ĭespite the bird’s bulk, the long, slim thigh bone shows it was fast on its feet. “We don’t know when it became extinct exactly, but most likely it did not survive later than 1.2m years ago,” Zelenkov said. Pachystruthio dmanisensis stood around 3.5 metres tall, and is estimated to have weighed about 450kg
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