Round Two: Cryptogyps vs Miosurnia
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Powerful Hidden Vulture
Time: 770,000 to 55,000 years ago (Chibanian to Tarantian stage of the Pleistocene epoch, Quaternary period)
Location: Throughout Australia, including Kalamurina, the Wellington Caves, and the Nullarbor Plain
Today, there are no vultures in Australia. In fact, until recently, it seemed fairly clear that no vultures had lived in Australia - but now, we know they did! Originally thought to be an eagle, Cryptogyps was on the small size for a vulture, only bigger than the living Hooded Vulture - though it was about the size of the wedge-tailed eagle. However, it was proportioned similarly to other vultures, and between that and its great range across the entirety of Australia, it is logical to conclude that it lived similarly to other vultures, feeding primarily on carrion and going great distances to find it. It did not have the right musculature to be an active hunter like eagles and hawks. As such, Cryptogyps was a vital part of its environment, reducing the spread of disease and recycling nutrients and energy back into the food web like vultures today. Cryptogyps lived alongside a wide variety of weird megafuana present in Australia during the last ice age, including marsupial lions, giant demon-ducks (mihirungs), giant hippo-sized wombats, sheep-sized and fossorial echidnas, short-faced kangaroos, giant koalas, thylacines, giant maleefowls, huge monitor lizards, large crocodilians, and giant pythons - as well as cassowaries, regular kangaroos, emus, and other large animals that remain today. It was a weird place of which Cryptogyps was a small and important part, and would have been a regular sight in the skies to the first Indigenous Australians to settle on the continent!
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Diurnal Hawk-Owl from the Miocene
Time: 7.25 to 11.1 million years old (Tortonian stage of the Miocene epoch, Neogene period)
Location: Liushu Formation, Gansu Province, China
Miosurnia was a small owl, weighing around 318 grams and having a similar overall size to its living relatives, the modern hawk-owls. And, like its living relatives, Miosurnia was diurnal (based on its eye shape) - a rarity in owls, mainly seen in Hawk-Owls and putative early members of the group. As such, this small clade of diurnal owls has a longer and more extensive range than previously thought. If so, it may have eaten a variety of small diurnal mammals, similar to small kestrels in many habitats today. This allowed it to live alongside a wide variety of other avian predators, including many Old World Vultures and falcons. Like other diurnal owls, Miosurnia lived in a large open habitat, and this was one right after the great grassland explosion of the Miocene. As the polar ice sheets grew, these large open habitats expanded across the planet, greatly affecting many ecologies. In addition to other birds of prey, Miosurnia shared its habitat with Panraogallus, ostriches, sandgrouse, Ergilornithids, and many mammals such as Cahlicotheris, Gomphotheres, horses, giraffids, and buff hyenas.
Cryptogyps or Miosurnia?
Voting ended onMar 16, 2023
