''Coragyps'' is a genus of

New World vulture Cathartidae, known commonly as New World vultures or condors, are a family (biology), family of birds of prey consisting of seven extant species in five genus, genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in the Americas. ...

that contains the

black vulture The black vulture (''Coragyps atratus''), also known as the American black vulture, Mexican vulture, zopilote, urubu, or gallinazo, is a bird in the New World vulture family whose range extends from the southeastern United States to Peru, Ce ...

''(Coragyps atratus)'' and two extinct relatives. The genus ''Coragyps'' was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Emmanuel Le Maout to accommodate the

. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''korax'' meaning "raven" with ''gups'' meaning "vulture". One extinct species is the 'western' black vulture, '' Coragyps occidentalis'', a larger ancestral relative of the modern species which lived in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

during much of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epoch; however, genetic evidence indicates that ''C. occidentalis'' may not be a true species of its own, as it is nested within the modern black vulture. The other is the Cuban black vulture, '' Coragyps seductus'', known from the Pleistocene of

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14786570 Bird genera Bird genera with one living species Cathartidae