Coragyps
Genus of New World vulture
Coragyps is a genus of New World vulture that contains the black vulture (Coragyps atratus) and two extinct relatives.
01Taxonomy
The genus Coragyps was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Emmanuel Le Maout to accommodate the black vulture.
Etymology
The name combines the Ancient Greek korax meaning "raven" with gups meaning "vulture".
02Fossil record
One extinct species is the 'western' black vulture, Coragyps occidentalis, a larger ancestral relative of the modern species which lived in North America during much of the Pleistocene epoch; however, genetic evidence indicates that C. occidentalis may not be a true species of its own, as it is nested within the modern black vulture. The other is the Cuban black vulture, Coragyps seductus, known from the Pleistocene of Cuba.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Coragyps”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Black Vulture, Riberalta, Bolivia imported from iNaturalist photo 177971345.jpg by (c) Vincent A. Vos, some rights reserved (CC BY), CC BY 4.0
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