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PHORORHACOS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 474 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHORORHACOS , the best-known genus of the See also:

extinct Patagonian Stereornithes (see See also:BIRD: Fossil). Among the bones found in the strata of the See also:Santa Cruz formation (now considered as mainly of See also:mid-See also:Miocene date) was the piece of a mandible which F. Ameghino described in 1887 as that of an edentate mammal, under the name of Phorysrhacos longissimus (Bolet. See also:Mus. de la See also:Plata, i. 24). In 1891 (Rev. Argent. Hist. Nat. i. 225) (From See also:life-See also:size See also:model in Brit. Mus. Nat.

Hist.) See also:

Skull of Phororhacos, longissimus. he amended the name and recognized the See also:bone as that of a bird, Phororhacos, which with Brontornis and others constituted the See also:family Phororhacidae. About six See also:species of the type genus are now known, the most See also:complete being Ph. infiatus, with skull, mandible, See also:pelvis, limbs and some of the vertebrae. These birds were at first considered as either belonging to the See also:Ratitae, or at least related to them, until C. W. See also:Andrews, after much of the interesting material had been acquired by the See also:British Museum, showed the gruiform See also:affinities of Phororhacos (See also:Ibis, 1896, pp. 1-12), a conclusion which he was able to further corroborate after the clearing of the adherent stony See also:matrix from the skulls (Tr. Z. S. 19ox, xv. pp. 55-86, pls. 14-17).

The skull of Ph. longissimus is about 2 ft. See also:

long and to in. high; that of Ph. inflatus is 13 in. long, and this creature is supposed to have stood only 3 ft. high at the See also:middle of the back. The under See also:jaw is slightly curved upwards and it contains a large foramen as for instance in Psophia and in Mycteria. The strongly hooked upper See also:beak is very high, and very much compressed laterally. The See also:palate is imperfectly desmognathous, as in Dicholophus, with an inconspicuous vomer. The quadrate has a See also:double knob for its See also:articulation with the skull, and basipterygoid processes are absent. What little is known of the See also:shoulder-See also:girdle (breastbone still unknown) points to a flightless bird, and so do the See also:short wing bones, although these are stout. The pelvis has an ischiadic foramen. The See also:hind limbs are distinctly slender, the See also:tibia of Ph. inflatus being between 15 and 16 in. in length. For further detail see F. Ameghino, " Sur See also:les oiseaux fossiles de la Patagonie," Bolet. inst. geogr. argentino, xv., chs. II and 12 (1895); F. P.

Moreno and A. Mercerat, Catdlogo de los pdjaros f6siles de la Republica See also:

Argentina, An. Mus. La Plata (1891; with 21 plates). (H. F.

End of Article: PHORORHACOS

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