Gymnogyps amplus is an extinctspecies of large New World vulture in the family Cathartidae. The species was first described by Loye H. Miller (1911)[1] in 1911 from a partial tarsometatarsus[2] recovered from Pleistocene cave deposits in Samwel Cave of northern California.[3] Harvey I. Fisher (1944) designated a set of plesiotypes from the Rancho La Brea which includes a cranium, rostrum, and mandible.[4]
The species is the only condor species found in the La Brea Tar Pits' Pit 10, which fossils date to "a Holoceneradiocarbon age of 9,000 years."[4] The smaller, modern California condor may have evolved from G. amplus.[4]
References
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^Miller, Loye Holmes (1911). "Avifauna of the Pleistocene Cave Deposits of California". Bulletin of the Department of Geology. 6 (16). University of California Publications: 390–391.
^Nadin, Elisabeth (26 October 2007). "Tracing the Roots of the California Condor". Caltech News. California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
^Fisher, H. I. (1947). "The skeletons of recent and fossil Gymnogyps". Pacific Science. 1 (4): 227–236.
^ a b cSyverson, Valerie J.; Prothero, Donald R. (2010). "Evolutionary Patterns in Late Quaternary California Condors" (PDF). PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 7 (1). PalArch Foundation: 1–18. Retrieved 11 October 2015.