Accipitridae, Vigors, 1824

Mather, Ellen K., Lee, Michael S. Y. & Worthy, Trevor H., 2022, A new look at an old Australian raptor places “ Taphaetus ” lacertosus de Vis 1905 in the Old World vultures (Accipitridae: Aegypiinae), Zootaxa 5168 (1), pp. 1-23 : 1

Pleistocene Australian Accipitridae

Throughout most of Australia, the Pleistocene (2.56 Ma–11.7 Ka) epoch was marked by arid climatic conditions, with the environment dominated by grasslands, open woodland ( Sniderman et al. 2007) and desert ( Hesse et al. 2004), similar to the present day. The Australian megafauna, which included at least 20 genera of large mammals, four of large birds, and three of large reptiles ( Wroe et al. 2013; Johnson et al. 2021), inhabited these environments until most of them went extinct between 50–40 Ka ( Roberts et al. 2001; van der Kaars et al. 2017). The raptor guild of the Pleistocene can be assumed to have comprised most of the living Australian species, with fossil material of Aquila audax (Latham) (Wedge- tailed Eagle) at least 500–200 Ka old ( Baird 1991; EKM, THW unpublished data). However, two extinct species that represent potential additional diversity have been described from this epoch; Aquila brachialis ( de Vis, 1889) and “ Taphaetus ” lacertosus de Vis, 1905 ( Gaff 2002 unpublished thesis; Boles 2006, 2017; Worthy & Nguyen 2020).