Chunga incerta

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Chunga incerta is an extinct cariamid bird that lived about 3 million years ago in the late Pliocene in the central-eastern part of South America. It is part of the genus Chunga, which today has only one living species, Chunga burmeisteri. The species was first described in 1974 by Argentinian paleontologist Eduardo Tonni. The main fossil is the end of a tibiotarsus, with two other fragmentary leg bones also found. They’re stored at the La Plata Natural Sciences Museum in Argentina. The fossils come from the Monte Hermoso Formation near Monte Hermoso, Buenos Aires, and are dated to the Late Pliocene (Montehermosan–Chapadmalalan ages), about 3 million years ago. Because only leg bones are known, little about its appearance is certain, but its weight is estimated at about 1.95 kg, similar to the modern red-legged seriema. The living Chunga burmeisteri inhabits dry environments like savannas and dry forests. Finding C. incerta in areas where the living species does not occur today suggests that the genus once had a wider southern and eastern distribution with warmer conditions than those now found there.