| Gymnogyps amplus Temporal range: Late Pleistocene – Holocene | |
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| Fossil skeleton from the La Brea Tar Pits | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Cathartidae |
| Genus: | Gymnogyps |
| Species: | †G. amplus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Gymnogyps amplus L. H. Miller, 1911 | |
Samwel Cave, Shasta County, California
Gymnogyps amplus is an extinct species of large New World vulture in the family Cathartidae. The species was first described by Loye H. Miller (1911) in 1911 from a partial tarsometatarsus recovered from Pleistocene cave deposits in Samwel Cave of northern California. Harvey I. Fisher (1944) designated a set of plesiotypes from the Rancho La Brea which includes a cranium, rostrum, and mandible.
The species is the only condor species found in the La Brea Tar Pits' Pit 10, which fossils date to "a Holocene radiocarbon age of 9,000 years." The smaller, modern California condor may have evolved from G. amplus.
References
- 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.
- ^ Syverson, 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.
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Gymnogyps amplus | |
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