Eleutherornis

Eleutherornis (†Eleutherornis cotei (Gaillard, 1936))

Synonyms: Diatryma cotei (Gaillard 1936), Eleutherornis helveticus (Schaub 1940)

 

Class: Aves

Order: Cariamiformes

Family: Phorusrhacidae

Subfamily: †Psilopterinae

Time period: lived in the Lutetian stage of the Middle Eocene in Europe (France and Switzerland)

Size: 150 cm in height, 30 - 60 kg of weight

 

 

Eleutherornis is a extinct flightless predatory bird, in the family Phorusrhacidae or "terror birds" whose remains have been found in Middle Eocene aged strata from France and Switzerland. It is the only known phorusrhacid in Europe and one of the few species of this family identified outside the Americas.

It is a medium-sized phorusrhacid, with a height of about 1.50 meters that shows a combination of basal and derivative characters.

The partial remains of this bird were discovered in France near Listeu, a municipality of the metropolis of Lyon and Switzerland in Egerkingen in the canton of Solothurn. They were reviewed and described in 2013 by Delphine Angst and his colleagues under the name of Eleutherornnis.