Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
460 / Cenozoic
Kelenken
Kelenken guillermoi
A seventy-centimeter skull and hooked beak armed one of the largest terror birds.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 15 million years ago
- Final stage
- Middle Miocene
- Geographic range
- Open woodland and grassland · Argentina
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Kelenken?
Kelenken (Kelenken guillermoi) was an extinct organism known from About 15 million years ago, with a range in Open woodland and grassland · Argentina.
Life and ecology
It chased medium prey on long legs and struck or tore with the beak.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Kelenken disappear?
Climate change and shifts in predator communities are possible context; the cause of the genus's disappearance is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Kelenken?
Skull, lower leg and toe bones constrain height and predatory anatomy.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS