Cryptogyps

Cryptogyps Temporal range: Pleistocene,
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Subfamily:	Aegypiinae
Genus:	†Cryptogyps Mather, Lee & Worthy, 2022
Species:	†C. lacertosus
Binomial name
†Cryptogyps lacertosus (de Vis, 1905)
Synonyms
“Taphaetus” lacertosus de Vis, 1905

Cryptogyps is an extinct genus of Old World vulture from Australia. It contains a single species, C. lacertosus. Originally described as an eagle in 1905 (under the binomial name Taphaetus lacertosus), in 2022 it was reidentified as a vulture, the only known representative from the continent. Phylogenetic analysis supports it being a sister species to the extant, widespread Eurasian vulture genus Gyps. The identification of Cryptogyps as a vulture solves a longstanding mystery about the lack of specialized lineages of large scavenging birds in Australia despite being present on every other continent aside from Antarctica.

It was initially known from the lower part of a humerus of Middle-Late Pleistocene age, found around Kalamurina in South Australia. More recently, fossils of indeterminate Pleistocene age were discovered in the Wellington Caves (New South Wales) and Nullarbor Plain (Western Australia), indicating that it had a wide distribution throughout the Australian continent. It likely foraged in grassland and open woodland environments.

Despite being close in size to the very large wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), Cryptogyps was still unusually small for an aegypiine vulture, with only the extant hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) being smaller. As with all other aegypiines, it is assumed to have been an active scavenger that flew great distance to find carrion to feed on. This would have provided a valuable ecological service by reducing disease transmission and facilitating energy flow.

Cryptogyps likely fed upon dead or dying Australian megafauna. Following the extinction of most Australian megafauna during the Quaternary extinction event about 50,000 years ago, Cryptogyps may have also gone extinct due to a lack of carrion to feed on. The extinction of Cryptogyps is thought to have allowed the wedge-tailed eagle to become Australia's primary scavenging bird species, due to a lack of competition with specialized scavengers such as Cryptogyps.