Teratornis incredibilis Howard, 1952
Incredible teratorn
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Aiolornis incredibilis (Howard, 1952)
Suárez & Emslie (2023) consider the genus Aiolornis which was erected by (Campbell et al., 1999) for T. incredibilis to be problematic.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution & Habitat
USA
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Howard, Hildegarde. (1952). The prehistoric avifauna of Smith Creek Cave, Nevada, with a description of a new gigantic raptor. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 51(2): 50-54.
Other references:
Campbell, K. E, Scott, E. and Springer, K. B. (1999). A new genus for the Incredible Teratorn (Aves: Teratornithidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 89: 169-175.
Emslie, Steven D. (1995). An early Irvingtonian avifauna from Leisey Shell Pit, Florida. Bull. Fla. Mus. Nat. Hist. 37(1): 299-344.
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
Howard, H. 1963. Fossil birds from the Anza-Borrego Desert. Los Angeles County Museum, Contributions in Science 73:1-33.
Howard, Hildegarde. (1972). The Incredible Teratorn Again. Condor 74(3): 341-344.
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)]
Miranda, Melissa. (2023). Estimating historic ranges of extinct scavenging birds in North America during the Late Pleistocene: using co-occurrence data from the fossil record. MSc essay, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg.
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)]
Suárez, William and Emslie, Steven D. (2023). On the correct publication date for the extinct avian family Teratornithidae L. Miller. Zootaxa 5227(1): 143-146. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5227.1.8
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2008). The Late Pleistocene Continental Avian extinction – an evaluation of the fossil evidence. Oryctos 7: 249-269.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/21850/teratornis-incredibilis