Extinct+animal+Teratornis

Teratornis

Teratornis Merriam is an extinct bird species related to modern day condors nad vultures. It was a huge bird that was mostly found in North America. It has a wingspan of around 3.5 to 3.8meters and a wing area of around 17.5 square meters. It is 75cm tall and it weighted about 15KG. It was known as one of the largest flying bird. This species existed 10 000 to 8 million years ago and probably became extinct due to the large mammals when they feed on grew scarce. Photo of Teratornis

Teratornis found in the La Brea Tar Pits Museum.

The Teratornis Merriami was included in the Teratorns family and was the best known bird among the birds in that family. Teratornis were birds that had small and narrow beaks and jaws; therefore they probably ate small animals such as [|mice], [|fish],[| lizards], [|dragon fly], young birds and frogs without chewing, but swallowed the whole animal.

Binomial name: **//Teratornis merriami//** __ ﻿ Teratornis Habitat__ The Teratornis Merriami were found mainly in America, which was along the open grassland and Andes, which is the world’s longest continent mountain range. It was also found somewhere near the Southern Patagonia, which is the most southern part of America. Teratornis Merriami lived mainly in woodlands and coastal bushes in California, Florida and Mexico. A large number of Teratornis Merriam has been found from the California to the La Brea Tar Pits as they were probably caught in the tar while haunting animals that were trapped. A large number of subfossil and fossil bones that represented more than 100 Teratornis Merriami were found in California, Florida and Florida.
 * Kingdom || Animalia ||
 * Phylum || Chordata ||
 * Class || Aves ||
 * Order || Falconiformes ||
 * Family || Teratornithidae ||
 * Species || T. merriami ||
 * [[image:designeranimals:Map_Anicent_Animal.jpg]] ||
 * Map of where Teratornis lived, the blue parts are the places where most Teratornis lived. ||

__Teratornis Adaptation:__ The Teratornis Merriami was described as one of the largest scavengers in history. They have long beaks just like the eagles and wide gapes just like actively predatory birds, but rather than vultures. Due to this special technique, the Teratornis were able to swallow their whole prey in one whole time. The Teratornis had strong and long legs, therefore they were able to tear off pieces from the prey they were holding. Teratornis normally hunt during daytime and they hunted foods like mammals, amphibians and reptiles that were on the ground. One of the predators of the Teratornis Merriami had hunted were the Dire wolves and creodonts. The environmental pressure that cause them to have long beaks and wide gapes are due to the small amount of food that could be found in the environment of the Teratornis. Small animals such as rabbits, mice, fish, lizards, dragon fly, young birds and frogs could be found at the environment of where they lived. With the long beak and wide gapes, the Teratornis can swollow the whole animal without chewing so then they can eat faster and they have a larger chance of eating more than their competitors. The Teratornis were more capable to walking to stalking as they had long and stouter legs, but they were not capable for running as they were adapted for moving on the ground than condors. Therefore, there was a great advantage for them to hunt food on the ground. photo of a teratornis's feet
 * __Adaptation 1- long beaks and wide gapes__**
 * [[image:http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Teratornis_merriami_fossil.jpg/180px-Teratornis_merriami_fossil.jpg]] ||
 * Photo of a Teratornis skeleton, the long beak and wide gapes could be clearly seen. ||
 * __Adaptation 2- Walking__**

All birds have finger bones that are connected, but this doesn’t apply to the Teratornis Merriami. Part of their index finger have been evolved into a wide shelf, this helps them support the load of long and stout primaries, which allows the birds to exploit strong up- current. The Teratornis Merriami can fly through strong winds without getting injured due to the help of the finger bones. Teratornis had one of the largest wings among other birds in history. The largest wing was around 1.5 meters long and 18 centimetres wide. The Teratornis use thermals for flight. The Teratornis can do fascinating flying skills and tricks when flying with these wings. They can do twist and turns after their take off and end up standing on a small tree branch. The Teratornis has a great advantage when having upward movements due to thermal. They can rest and glide without flapping their wings when flying in the sky. The Teratornis can have a soaring/ cruising speed of 57km/h.
 * __Adaptation 3- Finger Bones__**
 * __Adaptation 4- wings__**

The Teratornis Merriami has a bald head too. The bald head plays an important role to the Teratornis as it helps to keep unwanted pieces from the carrion away from the Teratornis while eating. The bald head allows the Teratornis to dig deep into the carcass to reach the meat. The environmental pressure that caused them to have bald head are mainly due to the environment they live as well. The Teratornis lives in a hot environment and eats most of carrions, hot environment led carrions to spread different diseases. The bald head kept the Turkey Vulture away from the chance of causing infection and unhealthy or undeveloped feather growth at molt. __ Selection Pressure: __ The main reason for Teratornis to become extinct is because of the climate change at the end of the last ice age, this led to widespread ecological alterations and prey scarcity, exacerbated by human hunting. Due to this, most large land animals disappeared and the population of the species started to decrease. The sudden number of disappeared species affected the Teratornis as they relied heavily on the carrion of land mammals. Therefore they could not survive their extinction.
 * __Adaptation 5- Bald Head:__**

Links "Teratornithidae." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].

"Teratornis - Prehistoric Bird Teratornis Characteristics, Behavior and Habitat." //Dinosaurs - Types, Behavior and Evolution of Dinosaurs//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].

"Bird Guides." //Bird Guide//. Backyard Birding. Web. [].

//Teratornis//. Web. 25 July 2011. [].

"Teratorn." //The Problem of 200 Lb. Eagles//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].