phorusrhacos

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an extinct giant flightless predatory bird of the South American genus Phorusrhacos, known from Miocene fossils

   The museum reconstruction showed a phorusrhacos with a massive hooked beak.

Coined as the New Latin genus name Phorusrhacos by Florentino Ameghino in 1887. Ameghino changed the spelling to Phororhacos in 1889, but zoological nomenclature later restored and formally conserved the original Phorusrhacos. Conan Doyle's phororachus reflects an obsolete English spelling based on Phororhacos.

Topics