tarsometatarsus

We also found an assortment of gull bones, including a nice tarsometatarsus, a cervical vertebra, and a dorsal vertebra, along with what appears to be the synsacrum and incomplete pelvis of a cormorant.

"While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy, high..." greygirlbeast 2009

Hoazinoides from the Miocene of Colombia, known from a partial skull, seems to have been very similar to Opisthocomus while Onychopteryx from the Eocene of Argentina is known only from a partial tarsometatarsus and hence is not too informative.

Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

They all have a strongly hooked bill, a simple, block-like hypotarsus (a site of ligament attachment on the posterior surface of the tarsometatarsus), distinctively proportioned toe bones, and a laterally compressed, strongly curved and sharp-tipped claw on the second toe (discussed previously here).

Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

A mammalian convergence on the avian tarsometatarsus.

Archive 2006-03-01 Darren Naish 2006

They all have a strongly hooked bill, a simple, block-like hypotarsus (a site of ligament attachment on the posterior surface of the tarsometatarsus), distinctively proportioned toe bones, and a laterally compressed, strongly curved and sharp-tipped claw on the second toe (discussed previously here).

Giant hoatzins of doom Darren Naish 2006

Hoazinoides from the Miocene of Colombia, known from a partial skull, seems to have been very similar to Opisthocomus while Onychopteryx from the Eocene of Argentina is known only from a partial tarsometatarsus and hence is not too informative.

Goodbye, my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin Darren Naish 2006

But its markedly slender tarsometatarsus indicates that it was gracile, and thus almost certainly not as heavy as the far more robust giant aepyornithids (aka elephant birds, restricted to Madagascar bar a few dubious reports from continental Africa and elsewhere) and dromornithids (aka mihirungs, an Australian group argued to be giant waterfowl).

Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

But its markedly slender tarsometatarsus indicates that it was gracile, and thus almost certainly not as heavy as the far more robust giant aepyornithids (aka elephant birds, restricted to Madagascar bar a few dubious reports from continental Africa and elsewhere) and dromornithids (aka mihirungs, an Australian group argued to be giant waterfowl).

More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006

We’re not actually sure what Stigogyps is (though its tarsometatarsus is similar in some details to that of a trumpeter), but its re-evaluation strikes phorusrhacids off the list of European fossil taxa.

More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006

We’re not actually sure what Stigogyps is (though its tarsometatarsus is similar in some details to that of a trumpeter), but its re-evaluation strikes phorusrhacids off the list of European fossil taxa.

Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006