Sarcoramphus
Temporal range: Pliocene - Recent
Juvenile and adult king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cathartiformes
Family: Cathartidae
Genus: Sarcoramphus
Duméril, 1805
Species

Sarcoramphus is a genus of New World vulture that contains a single extant species, the king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa).

Extinct members of the genus include the Kern vulture (Sarcoramphus kernense) from the mid-Pliocene of North America,[1] and Sarcoramphus fischeri from the Late Pleistocene of Peru.[2]

A hypothetical species known as the painted vulture is also assigned to this genus, but no concrete proof of its existence has been found as of yet.[3]

References

  1. ^ Miller, Loye H. (1931). "Bird Remains from the Kern River Pliocene of California" (PDF). The Condor. 33 (2): 70–72. doi:10.2307/1363312. JSTOR 1363312.
  2. ^ Wilbur, Sanford (1983). Vulture Biology and Management. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-520-04755-9.
  3. ^ Snyder, N. F. R.; Fry, J. T. (2013). "Validity of Bartram's Painted Vulture". Zootaxa. 3613 (1): 61–82. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3613.1.3. PMID 24698902. S2CID 5536272.
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