A reassessment of the giant birds Liornis floweri Ameghino, 1895 and Callornis giganteus Ameghino, 1895, from the Santacrucian (late Early Miocene) of Argentina.

Eric Buffetaut

Cite this article: Buffetaut E., 2016. A reassessment of the giant birds Liornis floweri Ameghino, 1895 and Callornis giganteus Ameghino, 1895, from the Santacrucian (late Early Miocene) of Argentina. Palaeovertebrata 40 (2)-e3. doi: 10.18563/pv.40.2.e3

Save to Mendeley
Save to BibTeX

Abstract

The status of the giant bird taxa Liornis floweri and Callornis giganteus from the Santa Cruz Formation (late Early Miocene) of Patagonia, first described by Ameghino (1895) is reassessed on the basis of a re-examination of the type material at the Natural History Museum, London. Liornis floweri, which lacks a Pons supratendineus on the tibiotarsus and has an unbifurcated Canalis interosseus distalis on the tarsometatarsus, is clearly a brontornithid and is considered as a junior synonym of Brontornis burmeisteri. Ameghino’s replacement of Callornis by Eucallornis is unjustified. Callornis giganteus is a chimera based on a phorusrhacid tarsometatarsus (probably belonging to Phorusrhacos longissimus) and a brontornithid tibiotarsus. The latter can be considered as the lectotype of Callornis giganteus, which may represent a small morph of Brontornis burmeisteri or a distinct taxon. It is referred to here as Brontornithidae indet. The tarsometatarsus described by Dolgopol de Saez (1927a,b) as Liornis minor and considered by her as a gracile brontornithid apparently has a bifurcated Canalis interosseus distalis and should therefore be placed among the Phorusrhacidae. 

Bibliography

Acosta Hospitaleche, C., Tambussi, C.P. & Reguero, M., 2001. Catálogo de los tipos de aves fósiles del Museo de La Plata. Serie Técnica y Didáctica del Museo de La Plata, 41, 1-28.

Agnolin, F.L., 2007. Brontornis burmeisteri MORENO and MERCERAT, un Anseriformes (Aves) gigante del Mioceno medio de Patagonia, Argentina. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 9, 15-25. https://doi.org/10.22179/REVMACN.9.361

Agnolin, F.L., 2009. Sistemática y filogenia de las aves fororracoideas (Gruiformes, Cariamae). Buenos Aires, Fundación de Historia Natural “Félix de Azara”.

Agnolin, F.L. 2013. La posición sistemática de Hermosiornis (Aves, Phororhacoidea) y sus implicancias filogenéticas. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 15, 39-60.

Alvarenga, H. & Höfling, E., 2003. Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 43, 55-91. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0031-10492003000400001

Alvarenga, H., Chiappe, L. & Bertelli, S., 2011. Phorusrhacids: the terror birds. In Dyke, G, Kaiser, G, (Eds), Living dinosaurs. The evolutionary history of modern birds.Wiley, Chichester, pp. 187-208. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119990475.ch7

Ameghino, F., 1891. Enumeración de las aves fósiles de la República Argentina. Revista Argentina de Historia Natural 1, 441–453.

Ameghino, F., 1895. Sur les oiseaux fossiles de Patagonie. Boletín del Instituto Geográfico Argentino 15, 501-602.

Ameghino, F. 1898. Sinopsis geológicopaleontológica de la Argentina. Segundo Censo de la República Argentina 1, 112-255.

Ameghino, F., 1901. L'âge des formations sédimentaires de Patagonie (suite). Anales de la Sociedad Cientìfica Argentina 51-52, 65-91.

Andreae, A., 1899. Zusammenfassendes Referat über die fossilen Riesenvögel aus Patagonien, speziell Phororhacos. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 2, 322-330.

Andrews, C.W., 1896. Remarks on the Stereornithes, a group of extinct birds from Patagonia. The Ibis 2, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.1896.tb06971.x

Baumel, J.J., Witmer, L.M., 1993. Osteologia. In Baumel, J.J., King, A.S., Breazile, J.E., Evans, H.E., Vanden Berge, J.C. (Eds), Handbook of avian anatomy: Nomina anatomica avium. 2nd edition. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 23, 45-132.

Bertelli, S., Chiappe, L.M. & Tambussi, C., 2007. A new phorusrhacid (Aves: Cariamae) from the Middle Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27, 409-419. https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[409:ANPACF]2.0.CO;2

Billberg, G. J., 1820. Enumeratio insectorum in Musaeo Gust. Joh. Billberg. Stockholm, Typis Godelianis. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.49763

Brodkorb, P., 1967. Catalogue of fossil birds. Part 3 (Ralliformes, Ichthyornithiformes, Charadriiformes). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum 11, 99-220.

Buffetaut, E., 2013a. Phororhacoidea or Phorusrhacoidea? A note on the nomenclature of the “terror birds”. Annales de Paléontologie 99, 157-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2013.02.004

Buffetaut, E., 2013b. Who discovered the Phorusrhacidae? An episode in the history of avian palaeontology. In Göhlich, U.B., Kroh, A. (Eds), Palaeornithological Research 2013. Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Wien, Naturhistorisches Museum, pp. 123-133.

Buffetaut, E., 2014. Tertiary ground birds from Patagonia (Argentina) in the Tournouër collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 185, 207-214. https://doi.org/10.2113/gssgfbull.185.3.207

Casinos, A., 2012. Un evolutionista en el Plata. Florentino Ameghino. Buenos Aires, Fundación de Historia Natural Félix de Azara.

Cuello, J.P., 1988. Lista de las aves fósiles de la régión neotropical y de las islas antillanas. Paula-Coutiana 2, 3-79.

Degrange, F.J., Noriega, J.I. & Areta, J.I., 2012. Diversity and paleobiology of the Santacrucian birds. In Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F., Bargo, M.S. (Eds), Early Eocene paleobiology in Patagonia: high latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 138-155. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667381.010

Dolgopol de Saez M., 1927a. Las aves corredoras fósiles del Santacrucense. Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina 103, 145-160.

Dolgopol de Saez M., 1927b. Liornis minor, una especie nova de ave fósil. Physis 8, 584-585.

Gadow, H., 1896a. Letter on the relationships of the Stereornithes. The Ibis 2, 586-587.

Gadow, H., 1896b. Hallux. In Newton, A., Gadow, H. (Eds), A dictionary of birds. Adam and Charles Black, London, pp. 404-405.

Gray, G.R., 1841. A list of the genera of birds, with their synonyms, and an indication of the typical species of each genus. London, Taylor.

Kraglievich, L., 1932. Una gigantesca ave fósil del Uruguay. Anales del Museo de Historia Natural de Montevideo 3, 323-353.

Lambrecht, K., 1921. Aves. In Diener, C. (Ed.), Fossilium Catalogues. I: Animalia, Pars 12. W. Junk, Berlin, pp. 1-104.

Lambrecht, K. 1933. Handbuch der Palaeornithologie. Berlin, Gebrüder Borntraeger.

Lydekker, R., 1896.Stereornithes. In Newton, A., Gadow, H. (Eds), A dictionary of birds. Adam and Charles Black, London, pp. 904-908.

Moreno, F. P, & Mercerat, A., 1891. Catálogo de los pájaros fósiles de la República Argentina conservados en el Museo de La Plata. Anales del Museo de La Plata 1, 7-71.

Patterson, B., 1941. A new phororhacoid bird from the Deseado Formation of Patagonia. Geological Series of the Field Museum of Natural History 8, 49-54.

Patterson, B., Kraglievich, J.L. 1960. Systemática y nomenclatura de las aves fororracoideas del Plioceno argentino. Publicaciones del Museo Municipal de Historia Natural y Tradicional de Mar del Plata 1, 1-52.

Tambussi, C.P. 2011. Palaeoenvironmental and faunal inferences based on the avian fossil record of Patagonia and Pampa: what works and what does not. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 103, 458-474. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01658.x

Tambussi, C.P., Degrange, F.C., 2013. South American and Antarctic continental Cenozoic birds. Paleobiogeographic affinities and disparities. Dordrecht, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5467-6

Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F., Bargo, M.S., 2012. Background for a paleoecological study of the Santa Cruz Formation (late Early Miocene) on the Atlantic coast of Patagonia. In Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F., Bargo, M.S. (Eds), Early Eocene paleobiology in Patagonia: high latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667381.002