Journal
GEOBIOS
Volume 51, Issue 1, Pages 51-59Publisher
ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.geobios.2017.12.006
Keywords
Ayes; Plotopteridae; Phalacrocoracoidea; Paleogene; Makah Formation; Pysht Formation; North America
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Funding
- LACM and its Foundation in the 1980s
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New bird fossils from the late Eocene/early Oligocene Makah Formation and the Oligocene Pysht Formation on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington State, USA) are described. A partial skeleton from the Pysht Formation includes the first reported tarsometatarsus of Tonsala hildegardae Olson, 1980, a wing-propelled diving bird of the taxon Plotopteridae. It shows that Tonsala had a tarsometatarsus that was morphologically intermediate between that of the late Eocene Phocavis and more derived plotopterids. We introduce the new taxon Tonsalinae nov. subfam. for a Glade including all named plotopterids except Phocavis, Plotopterum, and the recently described Stemec. We furthermore describe a partial plotopterid pelvis and a sternum from the Makah Formation. The sternum shows a close resemblance to that of extant Phalacrocoracoidea (cormorants and darters) and may be the earliest North American record of this taxon. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
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