The earliest fossil record of roadrunner birds is late Pleistocene (about 35,000 to 33,000 years old). These fossils are found in New Mexico, southern California (La Brea Tar Pits), Arizona, Texas, and northern Mexico. An example is Geococcyx conklingi, a large species.
Roadrunners belong to the cuckoo family and share ancestry with other birds, some of which have records in the dinosaur era. Roadrunners are ground-dwelling birds that have two toes forward and two toes backward = zgodactyl condition.
Classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Cuculiformes = the cuckoo family
Family Cuculidae (also includes cuckoo birds and their relatives)
Genus Geococyx
There are two living species of roadrunners. One is the “Greater roadrunner” G. californianus (the larger of the two species). It lives in the southwest USA and northern Mexico. The other living species is the “Lesser Roadrunner,” which is smaller in size and lives in southern Mexico and Central America.
Roadrunners are omnivores and 90% of what they east is animal matter. They can kill venomous snakes, scorpions, “black widow” spiders, and centipedes. They also eat small rabbits, bats, hummingbirds, other small birds, frogs, mice, grasshoppers, young ground squirrels, beetles, crickets, and caterpillars.
They originated in South America about 3 million years ago, and eventually migrated to North America, across the Panamanian land bridge (see of my previous blogs posts about this land bridge). Opussums are endemic to the Americas (i.e., occur on no other continents).
They are not rodents; rather they are marsupials (2-3 feet long—tail included) and weigh up to 15 pounds). Interestingly, because of special protein in their blood, they are nearly immune to rattlesnake venom and other viper toxins. Their blood is used in making anti-venom.
Classification:
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Didelphimorphic [=the largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, with 18 genera and 126 species.]
Family Didelphidae
Genus Didephis
They live 1 to 2 years in the wild and 3 to 8 years in captivity. They are preyed upon by coyotes, foxes, bobcats, large owls, and hawks.
Opossums have very long tails, thereby allowing them to hang from tree branches.
opossum
MULE DEER
They are indigenous to western North America: from Canada to Mexico. This deer is named for its ears, which are large like those of a mule.
Mule deers can be up to 330 pounds and up to 42 inches at the shoulder.
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order
Family Cervidae
Genus Odocoileus
Type species O. hemionus
Mule deer represent a geologically “young” species as they apparently evolved from Whitetail deer about 10,000 years ago during Pleistocene time. Whitetail deep evolved much earlier, about 1.5-2.5 million years ago.
REFERENCE
Wikipedia, 2025.
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