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cab67

(3,012 posts)
20. The term "terror bird" can apply to several groups that all post-date the KPg extinction.
Tue Mar 26, 2024, 06:29 PM
Mar 26

Phorusrhachids are primarily South American, with a brief appearance in North America and, IIRC, a record on islands off the coast of Antarctica.

In North America and Eurasia, we had gastornithids. These were basal anseriforms (related to ducks and their relatives). Isotopic evidence suggests they were mostly eating fruit, but they looked like phorusrhachids and would have been way cooler if they were predators.

There were also the mihirungs in Australasia.

Simultaneously, there were crocodyliforms that independently acquired compressed snouts, serrated teeth, and hoof-like terminal phalanges. These were literally "hoofed crocodiles."

Archosaurs were definitely among the dominant land predators during the Paleogene of the Northern Hemisphere and later in the Southern.

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