Buteogallus fragilis (Miller, 1911)
Fragile eagle, Águila frágil
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Geranoaëtus fragilis Miller; Urubitinga fragilis (Miller)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution & Habitat
California and New Mexico, USA
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Miller, L. (1911). A series of eagle tarsi from the Pleistocene of Rancho La Brea. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bull. Depart. Geol. 6:305-316.
Other references:
Emslie, Steven D. (1998). Avian community, climate, and sea-level changes in the Plio-Pleistocene of the Florida Peninsula. Ornithological Monographs, No. 50: iii + 113 pp.
Faurby, Søren, Matthews, Tom J., Triantis, Kostas A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2026). Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity. Ecography 2026: e08267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08267
Guthrie, D. A. 2009. An updated catalogue of the birds from the Carpinteria Asphalt, Pleistocene of California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 108(2):52-62.
Harris, Arthur H. (1993). Quaternary vertebrates of New Mexico, pp. 179-197. In: Vertebrate Paleontology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 2:i-vii, 1-338.
Hertel, Fritz. (1995). Ecomorphological indicators of feeding behavior in recent and fossil raptors. The Auk 112(4): 890-903.
Howard, H. and Miller, A. H. (1933). Bird remains from cave deposits in New Mexico. Condor 35: 15-18.
Jefferson, G. T. (1991). A catalogue of Late Quaternary vertebrates from California. Part one; nonmarine lower vertebrate and avian taxa. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Technical Reports 5: 1-60.
Matthews, Thomas J., Triantis, Kostas A., Wayman, Joseph P., Martin, Thomas E., Hume, Julian P., Cardoso, Pedro, Faurby, Søren, Mendenhall, Chase D., Dufour, Paul, Rigal, François, Cooke, Rob, Whittaker, Robert J., Pigot, Alex L., Thébaud, Christophe, Jørgensen, Maria Wagner, Benavides, Eva, Soares, Filipa C., Ulrich, Werner, Kubota, Yasuhiro, Sadler, Jon P., Tobias, Joseph A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2024). The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. Science 386(6717): 55-60. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7898 [Supplementary Materials; Dryad dataset; Zenodo codeset]
Matthews, Thomas J., Wayman, Joseph P., Cardoso, Pedro, Sayol, Ferran, Hume, Julian P., Ulrich, Werner, Tobias, Joseph A., Soares, Filipa C., Thébaud, Christophe, Martin, Thomas E. and Triantis, Kostas A. (2022). Threatened and extinct island endemic birds of the world: Distribution, threats and functional diversity. Journal of Biogeography 49(11): 1920-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14474 [Appendix S1 (.docx); Appendix S2 (.pdf)]
Santos, Sunshyne M., Prothero, Donald R. and Marriott, Katherine. (2022). Stasis in the extinct La Brea fragile eagle (Buteogallus fragilis) in response to climate change. In: Morgan, Gary S. et al. Late Cenozoic Vertebrates from the American Southwest: A Tribute to Arthur H. Harris. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 88: 365-370.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Stock, Chester and Harris, J. M. (1992). Rancho La Brea: A Record of Pleistocene Life in California. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series no. 37, 7th ed.: i-xiv + 1-113.
Suárez, William. (2020). The fossil avifauna of the tar seeps Las Breas de San Felipe, Matanzas, Cuba. Zootaxa 4780(1): 1-53. [Abstract]
Suárez, William. (2022). Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142(1): 10-74. https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2008). The Late Pleistocene Continental Avian extinction – an evaluation of the fossil evidence. Oryctos 7: 249-269.