Creccoides osbornii
| Creccoides osbornii | ||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
| Old Pleistocene | ||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Creccoides osbornii | ||||||||
| Shufeldt , 1892 |
Creccoides osbornii is a fossil bird species from the Old Pleistocene of North America. It is the only representative of the genus Creccoides . The species is known only from the proximal end of the left tarsometatarsus , where the hypotarsus is absent. The bone fragment was foundin Blanco Canyon in Crosby County , Texas by geologist William Fletcher Cummins , an employee of Edward Drinker Cope ,and described by Robert Wilson Shufeldt Jr. in1892. Shufeldt gave a detailed description of the bone fragment but did not provide a drawing. He suspected that this bird must have been larger than the black-wheeled crane and a wheel-like wader. Creccoides osbornii has long beenassigned tothe rails . However, when looking at this species in 1977, Storrs Lovejoy Olson raised doubts about this classification. Pointing out that Shufeldt had already made a mistake when assigning fossil bird species, Olson argued that this bone fragment probably does not represent any type of railing. Previously, Olson had tried unsuccessfully for a number of years to find the bone fragment as it was not listed in any of the major museum catalogs in the United States, including the AMNH , USNM , YPM , ANSP , New York State Museum, and University of Texas .
etymology
The art epithet refers to the paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History . The generic name is derived from the Greek words Krex (for corncrake ) and oides (for similarity).
literature
- Robert Wilson Shufeldt junior: Creccoides osbornii nov gen. & Sp. In: Edward Drinker Cope: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge. Volume 30, American Philosophical Society, 1892, pp. 125-127.
- Storrs Olson: A synopsis on the fossil Rallidae. In: Sidney Dillon Ripley: Rails of the World - A Monograph of the Family Rallidae. Godine, Boston 1977, ISBN 978-0-87923-198-9 , p. 348.