First Time Expert Finds Ancient Vulture Fossil in Australia All

KOMPAS.com – New research uncovers fossils bird ancient scavengers.

Fossil vulture Cryptogyps lacertosus (meaning carrion bird strong and hidden), was the first ancient vulture to be found in Australia.

Bird these lived between 500 to 50,000 years ago and are known as ‘Old World’ vultures. Similar species still exist today, although they are no longer found in Australia.

This fossil finding is actually quite interesting. The reason, for more than 100 years, paleontologists think that it is a fossil eagle (Taphaetus lacertosus).

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But thanks to the re-study of fossils, it was finally revealed that the fossils were vultures.

Quoted from Science AlertWednesday (20/7/2022) this reclassification also highlights how diverse megafauna and other wildlife in this part of the world was during the Pleistocene period which began about 2.5 million years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago.

“We compared the fossil to birds of prey from around the world and it became clear that it was neither adapted to a hunter nor an eagle,” said Ellen Mather, a paleontologist from Australia’s Flinder University.

Suspicion was seen from the features of the lower leg bones too backward to support the muscles needed to kill prey.

“When we placed Cryptogyps on the evolutionary tree, it confirmed our suspicion that the fossil bird was a vulture and we are excited to publish this finding,” said Mather.

Also read: This Vulture Species Is On The Threat Of Extinction, What Is The Impact?

The first bones of Cryptogyps lacertosus were actually found in 1901 with the discovery of the first part of the fossil in the form of wing bone fragments. The fossil was found near the Kalamurina Homestead on the Warburton River, South Australia.

But at that time, the fossil was identified as a relative of the extinct wedge-tailed eagle. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that Australian paleontologists began to suspect that the fossils might be vultures rather than eagles.

In its time, these vultures lived together with the wedge-tailed eagle and other large land animals such as the marsupial herbivore Diprotodon and the marsupial lion Thylacoleo, both of which have become extinct.

“This discovery solves the mystery of what happened to so many megafauna carcasses when this continent had no vultures. Now we know they are here and hidden in plain sight,” said Trevor Worthy, a paleontologist from Flinder University.

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Another conclusion from the study is that it illustrates that the diversity of birds of prey in Australia was much greater than it is today.

In addition, the researchers said that the extinction of the vultures would have major ecological implications as vultures played an important role in accelerating carrion decay and reducing spread, and now there are none left in Australia.

“The loss of Cryptogyps could cause a drastic upheaval in ecosystem function for a very long time as other species scramble to fill their niches.”

This research was published in Zootaxa.

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