Ben Creisler
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Crosnoornis nargizia gen. et sp. nov.
The paper describes a complete specimen of a passerine bird from the early Oligocene of Poland, preserved as imprints of bones and feathers on two slabs. Crosnoornis nargizia gen. et sp. nov. is just the fifth passerine species described from the Paleogene worldwide and the fourth complete. The features preserved in the distal elements of the wing exclude Acanthisittidae and Oscines and indicate that this bird can be included in Suboscines, making it the second complete representative of this group in the Paleogene. A strong, straight beak indicates that this bird could feed on a variety of foods, including hard seeds, fruit and invertebrates, and, therefore, occupied a different foraging niche than the Oligocene passerines described so far. The wing proportions, a very short tail and relatively long legs indicate that this bird spent most of its time in the forest, close to the ground in dense shrubs or dense tree crowns.
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Breacopus garretti gen. et sp. nov.
Bitumenpicus minimusÂÂgen. et sp. nov.
Melanerpes shawi sp. nov.
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Kenneth E. Campbell, Jr. & Zbigniew M. Bochenski (2021)
A review of the woodpeckers (Aves: Piciformes) from the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea, California, with the description of three new species.
Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments (advance online publication)
doi:10.1007/s12549-020-00444-1
Abstract:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12549-020-00444-1A review of the piciform avifauna from the upper Pleistocene asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, California, reveals that it comprises at least six species in five genera. We describe a new genus and species, Breacopus garretti, for the largest woodpecker, which was similar in size to the largest living North American species, Dryocopus pileatus. We recognise a new genus and species, Bitumenpicus minimus, for the smallest woodpecker in the palaeoavifauna of Rancho La Brea. We also recognise a new species of Melanerpes, M. shawi. The most common species present in the asphalt deposits is the Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus, which is predictable because of its ground-foraging habits, which would bring it into contact with the surficial seeps of petroleum more often than those piciforms preferring an arboreal habitat. Habits of the extant species from Rancho La Brea suggest a primarily open environment, with the largest species suggesting the presence of at least scattered large trees. The piciform palaeoavifauna provides support for the hypothesis that southwestern California was a "biogeographic island," or a region where the insular nature of the habitat promoted speciation during the late Pleistocene.
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Eric Buffetaut and Delphine Angst (2021)
A Giant Ostrich from the Lower Pleistocene Nihewan Formation of North China, with a Review of the Fossil Ostriches of China.
Diversity 13(2): 47
doi:
https://doi.org/10.3390/d13020047https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/13/2/47
A large incomplete ostrich femur from the Lower Pleistocene of North China, kept at the MusÃum National dâHistoire Naturelle (Paris), is described. It was found by Father Emile Licent in 1925 in the Nihewan Formation (dated at about 1.8 Ma) of Hebei Province. On the basis of the minimum circumference of the shaft, a mass of 300 kg, twice that of a modern ostrich, was obtained. The bone is remarkably robust, more so than the femur of the more recent, Late Pleistocene, Struthio anderssoni from China, and resembles in that regard Pachystruthio Kretzoi, 1954, a genus known from the Lower Pleistocene of Hungary, Georgia and the Crimea, to which the Nihewan specimen is referred, as Pachystruthio indet. This find testifies to the wide geographical distribution of very massive ostriches in the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia. The giant ostrich from Nihewan was contemporaneous with the early hominins who inhabited that region in the Early Pleistocene.