A Pleistocene raven skull (Ayes, Corvidae) from Jinyuan Cave, Liaoning Province, China

The nearly complete skull of a raven (Ayes, Corvidae) is reported from middle Pleistocene sediments (similar to 450-580 ka) of Jinyuan Cave near the city of Dalian on the Liaodong Peninsula of Liaoning Province, China. The new fossil closely resembles that of the Common Raven (Corvus coma.), a species with a Holarctic extant distribution. It is one of the relatively few fossil corvids known from China, and the first clear record of the Common Raven lineage in China. While the occurrence of this fossil raven is outside of the species current geographic distribution in China, the inferred paleohabitat for the cave setting as a dry and cold, shrub grassland is consistent with the preferred habitat of the living species. This raven likely was an omnivorous scavenger in the ecosystem surrounding the cave. The size of the skull places this individual in the larger end of the size range of extant ravens and is larger than most published European fossils. The combination of a relatively large interorbital fenestra and smaller suprameatic process in the fossil is similar to Asian specimens, potentially indicating phylogenetic relatedness. However, our study demonstrates that cranial osteological variation among extant Common Raven populations is little understood, particularly in a phylogenetic context.

Automated summary

A nearly complete skull of a raven, resembling the Common Raven species, was discovered in middle Pleistocene sediments in Liaoning Province, China. This finding represents one of the few known fossil corvids in China and the first clear record of the Common Raven lineage in the country. The cranial osteological variation among extant Common Raven populations is still not well understood, especially in a phylogenetic context.