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Post by sebbe67 on Jan 21, 2006 11:29:54 GMT
Archaeologists have uncovered remains of a massive bird of prey, the Malagasy Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery), which undoubtedly preyed on lemurs (Feduccia 1996). In fact, at one locality the diet of this eagle, based on the bones of eagles and lemurs found together, contained at least 80 percent primates, including specimens weighing up to 26.5 pounds (Feduccia 1996). Remains of another large eagle of the genus Aquila have been discovered, and it, too, preyed on large lemurs and became extinct after the arrival of the Malagasy. These extinct birds preyed on smaller lemurs as well, including some species still surviving (Feduccia 1996). A bird of prey flying overhead still elicits fear in lemurs, causing them to seek cover. Neither of the two remaining species of eagles on Madagascar preys on lemurs, but two hawk species have been seen preying on young lemurs (Garbutt 1999).
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Post by RSN on Jan 21, 2006 17:21:45 GMT
Stephanoaetus maheryGoodman 1994 Holocene, subrecent of MadagascarPrimary materials: Holotype: left tibiotarsus Secondary materials: Paratype: distal pedal phalanges, distal part right ulna, pelvis fragment Steven M. Goodman,
Description of a new species of subfossil eagle from Madagascar: Stephanoaetus (Aves: Falconiformes) from the deposits of Amphasambazimba
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 107 421-428 (1994)Source: www.ornitaxa.com/SM/Fossil/FossilAccipi.htm
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Post by Melanie on Jan 21, 2006 18:25:09 GMT
moved as it survived perhaps until the Holocene.
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Post by another specialist on Jan 31, 2006 19:55:17 GMT
No one has observed a raptor attack P.d.e., there is some debate as to whether any of the current raptors are large enough to do so. Sub-fossils of a large eagle (extinct for perhaps 500 years), Stephanoaetus mahery, have been found and that it may account for P.d.e.'s reaction to raptors (Goodman, 1994), on the other hand the raptors are certainly large enough to take infants and juveniles. P.d.e. will alarm call when sighting any of the large raptors in the park (Polyboroides radiatus, Eutriorchis astur, Accipiter henstii and Buteo brachypterus). Sub-adults and juveniles will occasionally make a mistake and alarm call at other large birds (ibis for example), but the adults will not join in. info.bio.sunysb.edu/rano.biodiv/Mammals/Propithecus-diadema/index.html |
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Post by another specialist on Jan 31, 2006 19:57:49 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Jun 7, 2005 20:05:43 GMT
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Post by Melanie on Jun 23, 2005 13:52:54 GMT
Stephanoaetus mahery
Goodman 1994
Holocene, subrecent of Madagascar
Primary materials: Holotype: left tibiotarsus
Secondary materials: Paratype: distal pedal phalanges, distal part right ulna, pelvis fragment
Steven M. Goodman,
Description of a new species of subfossil eagle from Madagascar: Stephanoaetus (Aves: Falconiformes) from the deposits of Amphasambazimba
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 107 421-428 (1994)
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Post by another specialist on Jul 23, 2005 9:51:17 GMT
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Post by sordes on Mar 5, 2006 10:44:21 GMT
I doubt that this bird was the origin of the legends of the bird roc, it seems much more probable that Aepiyornis was responsible for that.
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 24, 2006 19:55:36 GMT
Can anyone tell me how I can order the article from the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington? Thank You!
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Post by Melanie on May 24, 2006 20:12:01 GMT
This is only possible if you are an undergraduate and your university has online accounts (which are very expensive) to some online cataloges (like bioone.org)
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 25, 2006 17:31:23 GMT
Can anyone tell me how large this eagle was or weight?
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Post by Carlos on May 25, 2006 20:50:53 GMT
Can anyone tell me how large this eagle was or weight? Can you tell us, in return, why are you so obsessed with weights and measurements of extinct bird species?  You must admit it sounds weird, such a compulsive request of information on so many species. |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2006 20:53:48 GMT
Can you tell us, in return, why are you so obsessed with weights and measurements of extinct bird species? ;D ;D ;D Hihi ! |
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Post by Melanie on May 25, 2006 21:12:52 GMT
I agree to Noisi and Carlos. We are neither experts nor we have access to all the scientific data of extinct species especially to those were even the experts are known only a few little bones.
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Post by dysmorodrepanis on May 28, 2006 3:11:24 GMT
This is only possible if you are an undergraduate and your university has online accounts (which are very expensive) to some online cataloges (like bioone.org) You probably refer to the publications of the American Museum of Natural History (which are available on BioOne, but finally also for free on the museum library site, and almost all isuues too! Yay!). At least, I have not seen anything online of the PZSW except abstracts and that despicable "intelligent design" paper. This is a pity, because the PZSW probably features more descriptions of Late Quaternary prehistoric extinctions than any other single journal. |
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Post by cryptodude100 on May 31, 2006 18:40:22 GMT
Well I didn't know that being interested in fossil birds was such a crime! OMG call the police!!!!!!
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Post by Carlos on May 31, 2006 22:54:09 GMT
Don't be silly. Of course your interest is not a crime and no reason to call the police as you suggest.
It is just that you ask for information on weight and size of so many species in such a compulsive way that people cannot help but be surprised.
I think that people in this forum like to share information to everybody's benefit (at least I certainly do). And sharing minds giving as well as receiving information. I think it is OK to ask for a specific information to the community in the forum but, so far, you only have asked and asked, in most of the cases data that even the authors of the description of many species would be unable to supply, being described upon scarce and sparse fossil material.
I would suggest to you to do a little research on libraries and data bases before going to the easy way, that is, asking people to do that work to give you an answer.
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Post by dysmorodrepanis on Jun 1, 2006 2:18:03 GMT
It is just that you ask for information on weight and size of so many species in such a compulsive way that people cannot help but be surprised. Yes, basically, it was very unusual. Nobody here really expects this. There is actually some research in these things (e.g. there have been papers about the size and weight of birds that are likely not to survive arrival of the Polynesian Rat, or that are preferredly hunted by humans etc). But the main focus in Late Quaternary bird research ist relationships and feeding ecology/interaction in the pristine ecosystem. Such a request would have scarcely raised an eyebrow in an Extinct Mammals forum; the size and weight of mammals known only from bones is rather easy to determine from living relatives because the proportions usually stay the same. In birds, however, one tends to find leg, wing and skull bones and the sternum, all of which rapidly change in evolution (because birds adapt to new food sources, become flightless and terrestrial etc). So determining the size and especially weight of extinct birds is not a trivial thing usually, and as such it is a line of inquiry that makes perfect sense, but is done rather infrequently (a flying bird would weigh the same as a flightless relative that is a third smaller - the flight muscles can make up several dozen % of a bird's weight. That is why birds on remote islands become flightless in a rather short time, far less than a milion years sometimes: flightlessness frees up large amounts of energy that can be used for other things or simply needs not to be procured from food in the first place). In this case, it is rather straightforward; a nearly 1:1 comparison between the Malagasy and the African Crowned Hawk-eagle seems possible. But we can't tell at this time, because the journal that published the description is notoriously specialist and hard to get a hold of. It's too specialist even to have an own website. |
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Post by cryptodude100 on Jun 3, 2006 19:02:40 GMT
Are there any libraries online or data bases I could look up to find more imformation?
I have a huge pile of articles on almost every fossil bird that I have ordered from my library on interlibrary loan.I get articles from all over the U.S. I also order books also.I can share information about every fossil bird if anyone is interested.
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