Tyto_gigantea

<i>Tyto gigantea</i>

Tyto gigantea

Extinct species of bird

Tyto gigantea is an extinct barn owl from what is now Gargano, Italy, dating back to the late Miocene. From its remains, T. gigantea is suggested to have been as large as or larger than the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo).

Tibiotarsus of Tyto gigantea.

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Binomial name ...

This species seems to have lived at the same time as the closely related owl, Tyto robusta.[1] That would represent a single lineage of owls adapting to the largest size of their prey on the island, such as the great erinaceomorph of Gargano, Deinogalerix, and rodents.[2]

References

  1. [1]
    Pavia M. (2011). "Fossil birds from the Neogene of the Gargano (Apulia, SE Italy)". pp. 78–80. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  2. [2]
    Mlíkovský, J. (1998). A new barn owl (Aves: Strigidae) from the early Miocene of Germany, with comments on the fossil history of the Tytoninae. Journal für Ornithologie, 139(3), 247-261.


Stub icon

This prehistoric bird article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Tyto_gigantea, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.