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Short Note: An ibis-like bird from the Upper La Meseta Formation (Late Eocene) of Seymour Island, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2008

Piotr Jadwiszczak ,
Andrzej GaŹdzicki  and
Andrzej Tatur
Piotr Jadwiszczak*
Affiliation:
Instytut Biologii, Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, ul. Świerkowa 20B, 15-950 Białystok, Poland
Andrzej GaŹdzicki
Affiliation:
Instytut Paleobiologii, Polska Akademia Nauk, ul. Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warszawa, Poland
Andrzej Tatur
Affiliation:
Zakład Biologii Antarktyki, Polska Akademia Nauk, ul. Ustrzycka 10/12, 02-141 Warszawa, Poland
*
*[email protected]
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Extract

Ibises are a group of medium- to large-sized, mainly wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae (Aves: Ciconiiformes; see also discussion in Mayr 2002). They are known from all the continents except Antarctica, though one species breeds as far south as Tierra del Fuego (del Hoyo et al. 1992, p. 499). The oldest fossil bones (including skull elements) attributed to ibises are those of Rhynchaeites messelensis Wittich, 1898 from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany (Peters 1983, Mayr 2002). Another supposed member of this group is the Pondaung bird from the late Middle Eocene of Myanmar (formerly Burma) represented solely by an incomplete tibiotarsus (Stidham et al. 2005, fig. 2). The taxonomic position of Minggangia changgouensis Hou, 1982 from the Late Eocene of China (Hou 1982) was recently questioned by Stidham et al. (2005, p. 183). Here, we present a partial bill from the Eocene La Meseta Formation (Seymour Island, Antarctica) which most closely resembles that of ibises.

Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2008 , pp. 413 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2008

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