Scavengers

David Shepherd

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"The Scavengers"
Signed, limited edition
Published 1979
Image Size 18" x 33"
Although New World vultures and Old World vultures share many resemblances, they are not very closely related. Rather, they share resemblance because of convergent evolution.
Early naturalists placed all vultures under one single biological group. Carl Linnaeus had assigned both Old World vultures and New World vultures in a Vultur genus, even including the Harpy eagle.
Soon anatomists split Old and New World vultures, with New World vultures being placed in a new suborder, Cathartae,
later renamed Cathartidae as per the Rules of Nomenclature (from Greek: carthartes, meaning 'purifier') by French ornithologist Frederic de Lafresnaye.
The suborder was later recognised as a family, rather than a suborder.