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NEW RECORDS OF STORKS (CICONIIDAE) FROM QUATERNARY ASPHALT DEPOSITS IN CUBA
Abstract
Storks were previously known in Cuba only from the living Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) and two bones of the extinct species Ciconia maltha from Cienfuegos Province. Newly explored Quaternary tar seep deposits in Matanzas Province have yielded fossils of M. americana, the extinct wood stork M. wetmorei, and an unidentified species of Ciconia smaller than C. maltha. These specimens provide the first verifiable fossil record of M. americana anywhere, the first of M. wetmorei outside of Florida and California, and the first instance of these two species occurring sympatrically. Nuevos Registros de Cigüeñas (Ciconiidae) en Depósitos Cuaternarios de Asfalto en Cuba Resumen. Las cigüeñas eran conocidas en Cuba solo por la cayama viviente, Mycteria americana, y por dos huesos de la especie extinta Ciconia maltha, procedentes de la Provincia de Cienfuegos. La exploración de depósitos cuaternarios de asfalto en la Provincia de Matanzas, aportó fósiles de la cigüeña extinta Mycteria wetmorei, de M. americana, y de una especie no identificada de Ciconia, menor que C. maltha. Estos fósiles suministran el primer registro confiable de M. americana, y el primero de M. wetmorei fuera de Florida y California, junto con la primera evidencia de estas dos especies viviendo en simpatría.
... base de los siguientes caracteres: 1, tarsometatarso grácil y estrechado transversalmente por sobre las trócleas distales; 2, diáfisis metatarsal bien comprimida anteroposteriormente por sobre las trócleas distales; 3, rebordes trocleares de la tróclea III redondeados; 4, reborde distal de faceta metatarsal I poco pronunciado; 5, tróclea I, en vista distal, bien estrechada posteriormente; 6, trócleas distales formando una " U " invertida más pronunciada que en los Mycteriini (miller, 1932; howArd, 1942; olson, 1991; noriegA, 1994; suárez & olson, 2003; boles, 2005). Dentro de Ciconia, C. lydekkeri es considerada como una especie válida debido a la presencia de la siguiente combinación única de caracteres (basada en el material holotípico BMNH 18879, BMNH 18878 y en MACN Pv 584): 1, mayor tamaño que el resto de las especies de ...
In the present note new materials referable to the living species C. lydekkeri are described and reviewed. The extinct species C. maltha is here considered as junior synonym of C. lydekkeri and the latter is reported for the first time in the Pleistocene of Argentina. Moreover, all fossil records of the genus Ciconia in the Pleistocene of South America are briefly analyzed. En el presente trabajo se comentan y revisan materiales referibles a la especie extinta Ciconia lydekkeri. La especie extinta C. maltha es considerada aquí como sinónimo júnior de C. lydekkeri y es citada por primera vez para Argentina. Asimismo se efectúa una breve revisión de todos los registros del género Ciconia en el Pleistoceno de Sudamérica.
A novel protocol to purify bone collagen for radiocarbon dating and stable isotope ratio analysis from asphalt-impregnated skeletal remains stored in the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries (Los Angeles, California) is presented. This simple technique requires that bones be crushed (1-2 mm), sonicated in a 2:1 toluene/methanol solution, and gelatinized at 75°C overnight to break down collagen strands for ultrafiltration. However, here the traditional protocol of ultrafiltration is reversed, and the high molecular weight fraction (>30 kDa) contains mainly the asphalt (too big to pass through the filter), while the lower molecular weight fraction (<30 kDa) contains the collagen. A second ultrafiltration (>3kDa) is then performed on the <30 kDa fraction to remove lower molecular weight contaminants such as hydrocarbons and humic acids. The middle fraction (3-30 kDa) is freeze dried and produces collagen with excellent atomic C:N ratios between 3.2-3.5. The steps involved in the design of the protocol will be discussed in detail, and the first isotopic results and radiocarbon dates from the Project 23 site will be presented. In addition, the largest compilation of carbon and nitrogen isotopic results directly paired with radiocarbon ages on bone collagen from 38 land mammals found at the Rancho La Brea site are presented. Finally, while this protocol was specifically designed to extract collagen from samples at the Rancho La Brea site, it is likely that it can be applied to other localities (e.g. Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, etc.) where bones have been impregnated with petroleum.
A complete tarsometatarsus from a small Pleistocene sinkhole in northwest central Cuba is identified as that of a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron Tigrisoma mexicanum. This constitutes the first record of any kind of tiger-heron (subfamily Tigrisomatinae) in the West Indies. The extinction of the species in Cuba is perhaps attributable to habitat loss due to climatic change.
An incomplete tarsometatarsus of a fossil Ciconiidae is here described. It comes from the Tarija Formation (Lower-Middle Pleistocene) of Bolivia. It is assigned to the large extinct species Ciconia maltha, recorded in the Mid-Late Pleistocene of North and Central America. The material here reported represents the fi rst fossil record for Ciconia maltha in South America, and the fi rst for the family Ciconiidae in Bolivia.
The first Cenozoic avian remains from Venezuela are described. The material comprises an associated right tarsometatarsus and tibiotarsus from the earliest Pliocene of the Codore Formation, northwestern Venezuela. The fossil-bearing horizon represents a deltaic paleoenvironment. The elements are long and narrow, and the presence of a circular incisura intercondylaris bordered proximally by a prominent and centrally-situated tuberculum m. tibialis anticus on the tibiotarsus, allows confident referral to the Ciconiidae (storks). The elements are a close match in morphology and size to the extantJabiru mycteria (Jabiru Stork), although the presence on the distal tibiotarsus of a well-defined caudal sulcus, a narrower sulcus extensorius and shallower angled pons supratendineus, and on the tarsometatarsus of a narrower and deeper sulcus on the plantar surface and a less prominent ridge laterally bordering the fossa supratrochlearis plantaris indicate that this is a new species,Jabiru codorensis n. sp.Jabiru mycteria, the only living species, still occurs in Venezuela, where it is found mostly in grassy wetlands. These specimens represent the first fossil record ofJabiru, as well as the first pre-Pleistocene record of fossil birds from Venezuela.
Within the Greater Antilles, terrestrial asphalt seeps are unique to the northern coastal region of Cuba. Several such seeps occur in the region designated here as Las Breas de San Felipe, which is situated in the northern part of Matanzas province, 5.5 km northwest of the town of Marti. We report here on two localities (San Felipe I and II) at which fossil elements occur in abundance in asphalt-impregnated sands, silts, clays, and gravels. The taxonomic list includes Mollusca, Arthropoda (Crustacea and Insecta), Reptilia, Aves and Mammalia. Plant macrofossils and several kinds of coprolites have also been found. Geomorphological and taphonomic considerations suggest that, at the time of fossil deposition, San Felipe was a coastal plain where freshwater, brackish marine and dry savannah conditions occured simultaneously, consequently, or both. The content of the faunule and the stratigraphic position of the fossiliferous deposits indicate that the seeps were 'active' (i.e., fluid enough at surface to incorporate organic material) during very recent times, probably in the terminal Pleistocene or early Holocene.
Eleven previously unidentified fossil avifaunas from Pliocene and Pleistocene localities in the Florida peninsula are presented, within which are included the description of a new species of anhinga (Anhinga beckeri), woodcock (Scolopax hutchensi), and pygmy-owl (Glaucidium explorator), and a new genus and species of condor (Aizenogyps toomeyae). The paleospecies Milvago readei, Dorypaltus prosphatus, and Protocitta dixi are considered to be synonymous with the living taxa Milvago chimachima, Vanellus chilensis, and Pica pica, respectively. These 11 avifaunas supplement the existing record of fossil birds from Florida that collectively provide a unique chronology of originations and extinctions of 239 extinct and extant taxa during a climatically dynamic period that began approximately 2.5 million years ago (Ma). Topographic and bathymetric maps of the peninsula are used with Geographic Information Systems software to model and correlate sea-level changes with the location and age of major fossil sites, the avian chronology, and presumed primary habitat of each represented taxon. These analyses indicate range expansions of Neotropical, western North American, and continental forest birds into the Florida peninsula during glacial stages, and the isolation, extirpation, or extinction of many of these taxa during interglacial stages. The relatively rapid climatic cycles of the Plio-Pleistocene, combined with the low topography of the peninsula, caused significant loss of wetland habitat during interglacial marine transgressions, especially in southern Florida. This habitat reduction probably accounted for extinctions of many wetland birds, especially those with relatively small body-size, in the late Pliocene. Additional extinctions recorded in the early Pleistocene resulted in a gradual loss of species richness in these communities by the end of the Pleistocene, when modern wetlands were established. Climatic events in the Pleistocene influenced terrestrial communities with the periodic formation and fragmentation of the Gulf Coast corridor, a mosaic of dry, thorn-scrub, savannah, wetlands, and hammocks, that united Neotropical regions to the south with western North America and the Florida peninsula. This corridor developed with the emergence of the shallow continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico during glacial stages, which in some cases more than doubled the land area of the peninsula and allowed numerous species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants to extend their ranges into Florida. Fragmentation of this corridor during interglacial stages caused loss of species richness, probably from loss of habitat heterogeneity in the peninsula. Unlike wetland communities, modern terrestrial communities did not develop until the early Holocene, after the last fragmentation of the corridor and extinction event at 0.01 Ma. Fossil passerine remains suggest that North American continental migration patterns began developing in the peninsula in the late Pliocene, and were fully established by the late Pleistocene, but Neotropical migration patterns may not have developed until the early Holocene. The chronology presented here provides a model of avian biogeography and community development in the Florida pen- insula during the ice ages that can be tested with future paleontological research.
The behavioural displays of six species of vanelline plover (Vanellus, Charadriidae, Charadriiformes) in southern Africa and Israel were recorded in the field. Using those displays considered to be systematically useful, I compared the relationships between species using behavioural and morphological characters. In general, the relationships between species using behaviour and morphology were congruent. The placement of the blackwinged plover Vanellus melanopterus and lesser blackwinged plover V. lugubris in a superspecies (Snow, 1978) was not supported by either behavioural or morphological data. The superspecific status of the blacksmith plover V. armatus and spurwinged plover V. spinosus proposed by Snow (1978) was supported by both data sets examined here. The morphological data examined indicate that the two South American species, the Chilean lapwing V. chilensis and Andean lapwing V. resplendens, are more closely related to one another than to any other lapwing species, and are probably derived from the Old World blacksmith/spurwinged plover superspecies.
The first installment of a catalogue of the fossil birds of the world covers 49 families in 15 orders of birds, or nearly half of the orders and about one-fourth of the families known. The species treated number 374, of which 273 are extinct, and 101 represent living species recorded from fossil or prehistoric sites. For the paleospecies the data include citation of the original description, synonyms, nature and repository of types, reference to pertinent revisionary papers, and detailed geological and geographic ranges, with bibliographic reference to their occurrence. Major taxonomic changes include recognition of three subclasses, Sauriurae for Archaeopteryx, Odontholcae for the Hesperornithidae, and Ornithurae for the remaining birds. Three infraclasses of Ornithurae are recognized, Dromaeognathae (for the Tinamidae), Ratitae, and Carinatae. Changes in position include transfer of the family Opisthodactylidae to the Rheiformes, Enaliornithidae to the Gaviiformes, and Baptornithidae to the Podicipediformes. On priority the ordinal name Ciconiiformes yields to Ardeiformes. Prior family names adopted include Emeidae for Anomalopterygidae, Oceanitidas for Hydrobatidae, and Plataleidae for Threskiornithidae. New taxa proposed are Colymboidinae (new subfamily, Gavildae), Cayetanornis (new genus, Tinamidae), and Palaeeudyptes marplesi (new species, Spheniscidae). The misprinted name Pelagodornithidae is emended to Plegadornithidae, to conform with the spelling of the type-genus.
IN the course of field observations of the American wood stork (Mycteria americana) in Florida, the birds were seen to capture fish habitually from water so turbid or choked with vegetation that the use of visual cues was improbable. In such feeding behaviour, a stork typically inserts its partially open bill into the water, moves the bill slowly from side to side, and walks forward. Submerged vegetation is sometimes stirred with one foot and the wing on the same side is flashed open, presumably to startle concealed fish into the open bill. When a fish makes contact with the bill, the mandibles are quickly closed with considerable force. These feeding techniques have been previously described1-3.
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