Columba melitensis
| Columba melitensis | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
| Young Pleistocene | ||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Columba melitensis | ||||||||
| Lydekker , 1891 | ||||||||
Columba melitensis is a fossil pigeon species thatoccurredin Malta up to the Young Pleistocene . The holotype , which consists of a left coracoid , comes from an unknown location in Malta and wasdescribedby Richard Lydekker in 1891. The coracoid has similarities with that of the rock pigeon ( Columbia livia ), but it differs through a smaller and narrower joint head as well as through the thinner proximal part of the bone shaft . The front edge of the shoulder socket forms a longer and sharper edge, which is separated by a deeper groove. The subclavicular process is not pierced.
The fossil material is kept in the Natural History Museum in London.
literature
- Richard Lydekker: Catalog of the fossil birds in the British Museum (Natural History). London 1891, pp. 124-125 ( digitized ).
- Kálmán Lambrecht: Handbook of Palaeornithology. Borntraeger Brothers, Berlin 1933, p. 603.