Coragyps
Genus of New World vulture / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coragyps is a genus of New World vulture that contains the black vulture (Coragyps atratus) and two extinct relatives.
Coragyps | |
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Black vulture (Coragyps atratus) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Cathartiformes |
Family: | Cathartidae |
Genus: | Coragyps Le Maout, 1853 |
Type species | |
Vultur atratus Bechstein, 1793 | |
Species | |
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The genus Coragyps was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Emmanuel Le Maout to accommodate the black vulture.[1][2] The name combines the Ancient Greek korax meaning "raven" with gups meaning "vulture".[3]
One extinct species is the 'western' black vulture, Coragyps occidentalis, a larger ancestral relative of the modern species which lived in North America during much of the Pleistocene epoch; however, genetic evidence indicates that C. occidentalis may not be a true species of its own, as it is nested within the modern black vulture.[4][5][6] The other is the Cuban black vulture, Coragyps seductus, known from the Pleistocene of Cuba.[7]