as regards the secretarybird, the genus "pelargopappus" occurred at about the same time as "e. eocaenus" in today's france, separated from the site of faiyum by more than 1,500 km of the shrinking tethys sea. the maghreb was closer to europe however, not more than today's mediterranean where it is widest, and numerous bird lineages are known to have occurred in africa as well as in europe during the eocene. "pelargopappus" seems to be an ancient secretarybird, not an ancestor of the living species but not far removed from the last common ancestor either. its remains, and how they differ from secretarybirds, give an idea how the sagittariidae of that time looked like. so even though "pelargopappus" has not yet been directly compared to the african fossil in a cladistic analysis, the pronounced differences between "eremopezus" and "sagittarius" and the biogeography of "pelargopappus" suggest that "eremopezus" was not especially close to the secretarybird's lineage. thus, even if it belongs with the falconiformes (or accipitriformes), it would probably remain in its distinct family.