Miocorvus larteti
| Miocorvus larteti | ||||||||||||
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Miocorvus larteti , |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Middle Miocene ( Astaracium , MN 6 ) | ||||||||||||
| 15.2 to 15 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Miocorvus | ||||||||||||
| Lambrecht , 1933 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Miocorvus larteti | ||||||||||||
| ( Milne-Edwards , 1871) |
Miocorvus larteti is an extinct species of corvidae (Corvidae). It is the only representative of the genus Miocorvus and livedin Europe in the Middle Miocene . Miocorvus larteti was a medium-sized corvid, about the size of Garrulus jays. The known finds all come from the southern French fossil deposit Sansan , where at the time of the occurrence of Miocorvus larteti there was a freshwater swamp in a warm, humid climate. There the species probably moved in the branches of alluvial forests.
Miocorvus was in 1871 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards described and later by Kálmán Lambrecht placed in a separate genus. The remains found so far include fossil leg, shoulder and wing bones. With an age of around 15 million years, the species is the oldest known corvid.
features
Miocorvus larteti was, judging by the leg and wing bones, a medium-sized and rather graceful raven bird. It was slightly smaller than the Eurasian jay ( Garrulus glanduarius ) living today . The humerus was stronger than that of the ravens and crows ( Corvus ), the attachment points of the wing feathers (papillae ulnares) were more developed. Osteologically , Miocorvus larteti resembles several recent genera of corvids. Comparisons with several European genera showed similarities in terms of skeletal features with blue star ( Cyanopica ), real magpies ( Pica ), but above all with the jays of the genus Garrulus . Miocorvus differs from these mainly in the structure of the tarsometatarsus , whose sharp edge is less developed and which has a deepened joint socket as in Cyanopica .
Sites and fossil material
 
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Locality of miocorvus in France |
Miocorvus larteti has so far only been found in the Sansan fossil site in southern France . In deposits of similar age further to the north, for example in Petersbuch or in Nördlinger Ries , the species is missing. The fossil material of the species that has been recovered to date comes from at least 21 individuals and includes bones from the running and flying apparatus and the shoulder girdle.
habitat
During the existence of Miocorvus larteti, there was a swamp area with a subtropical microclimate at the Sansan site . Alluvial forests with the hackberry tree Celtis lacunosa and the nutmeg family Myristicacarpum miocaenicum grew along a river system, while water lilies and candelabras were found in the water . Since more specimens of Miocorvus larteti were found in Sansan than of any other bird species, it can be assumed that open, moist forests were part of the species' typical habitat. Miocorvus shared its habitat with crocodiles , turtles and representatives of the Miocene mammal fauna, such as the giraffe Eotragus sansaniensis and the deer Dicrocerus elegans . Other birds that were found in the Sansan deposit are hens , herons and parrots , but also birds of prey , for example from the genus of the hawks and sparrowhawks ( Accipiter ).
Chronological order
Fossils of Miocorvus were exclusively within the zone MN 6 found Sansan, in deeper horizons Fund lacks the kind. With an age of about 15.0 to 15.2 million years Miocorvus the oldest known representative of the family of corvids . Other fossil corvids appear some time later with Miopica paradoxa in the Upper Miocene of Ukraine and Miocitta galbreathi from the Upper Miocene of Colorado .
Systematics and taxonomy
The first Miocorvus bone fragment - the lower part of a running bone - was found in the mid-19th century by Édouard Armand Lartet , the discoverer of the Sansan fossil site. It was first described in 1871 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards in the second volume of his Recherches Anatomiques et Paléontologiques . Milne-Edwards made drawings of the available bone material as well as a skeletal reconstruction and gave the species the name Corvus larteti , as he saw a strong resemblance to the ravens and crows living today . As a specific epithet he chose Lartets larteti in honor .
A first superficial revision of the Milne-Edwards species description was carried out by Kálmán Lambrecht in 1933. In his Palaeoornithologie he agreed to the assignment of the way of the crows in principle, but took the view that the specific nature of the bones and their advanced age justify its own genus. He chose Miocorax as the new generic name , making a mistake: He had already used the same name at an earlier point in the work for a fossil genus of cormorants , which means that it could not be used again according to the rules of zoological nomenclature . Lambrecht only noticed this error after the core text had been printed and subsequently corrected the name in a footnote from Miocorax to Miocorvus . The name is made up of Mio - for Miocene and Latin corvus for "raven".
A comprehensive revision of Miocorvus was not carried out for a long time, even if it was requested by Pierce Brodkorb, for example . In 2000, Jacques Cheneval subjected Miocorvus larteti to a closer examination. He measured and compared bone material from the individuals found so far and came to the same conclusion as Milne-Edwards regarding family allocation. As a lectotype he specified a slightly damaged tarsometatarsus ( MNHN SA 1248), which he believed was depicted in the original drawings by Milne-Edwards. As paralectotypes , he determined other bones from Milne-Edwards' original material. Jirí Mlíkovský contradicted the choice of the lectotype by pointing out that Milne-Edwards' tablets showed several different bones that were merely of the same type. Mlíkovský called for further investigations by Miocorvus , but the assignment of the fossils to the corvids is largely confirmed.
literature
- Christiane Blanc-Louvel: La Macroflore de Sansan. In: Léonard Ginsburg: La faune miocène de Sansan (Gers) et son environment. - Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris) 183, 2000. pp. 109-116.
- Pierce Brodkorb: Neogene Fossil Jays from the Great Plains. In: The Condor 74 (3), 1972. pp. 347-349.
- Pierce Brodkorb: Catalog of Fossil Birds. In: Bulletin of the Florida State Museum. Biological sciences. 23 (3), 1978. pp. 139-157.
- Jacques Cheneval: L'avifaune de Sansan. In: Léonard Ginsburg: La faune miocène de Sansan (Gers) et son environment. - Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris) 183, 2000. pp. 321-388.
- Kálmán Lambrecht: Handbook of Palaeornithology. Borntraeger brothers, Berlin 1933.
- EN Kurotschkin, DV Sobolew: Miopica paradoxa gen. Et sp. n. - Новые род И Вид Миоценовых Сорок. In: Vestnik zoologii 38 (6), 2004. pp. 87-90. ( PDF )
- Alphonse Milne-Edwards: Recherches Anatomiques et Paléontologiques Pour Servir à l'Histoire des Oiseaux Fossiles de la France. Tome Second. Librairie de G. Masson, Paris 1869–1871.
- Jirí Mlíkovský: Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe . Ninox Press, Prague 2002. ISBN 80-901105-3-8 . ( Online ; PDF; 2.8 MB)
- Cécile Mourer-Chauviré: Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe. In: The Auk 121 (2), 2004. doi : 10.1642 / 0004-8038 (2004) 121 [0623: cbotwp] 2.0.co; 2 , pp. 623-627.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lambrecht 1933 , pp. 636 & 1024.
- ↑ Milne-Edwards 1871 , pp. 381-384.
- ↑ a b Lambrecht 1933 , p. 636.
- ↑ a b Cheneval 2000 , pp. 375-378.
- ↑ Cheneval 2000 , p. 322.
- ↑ Blanc-Louvel 2000 , pp. 109-113.
- ↑ Cheneval 2000 , p. 321.
- ↑ Kurotschkin & Sobolew 2004 , pp. 87-88.
- ↑ Brodkorb 1972 , p. 347.
- ↑ Cheneval 2000 , p. 378.
- ↑ Milne-Edwards 1871 , pp. 379-384.
- ↑ Lambrecht 1933 , p. 1024.
- ↑ Brodkorb 1978 , p. 215.
- ↑ Cheneval 2000 , p. 374.
- ↑ Mlíkovský 2002 , p. 234.
- ↑ Mourer-Chauviré 2004 , p. 626.
