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Macrornis tanaupus Seeley, 1866: an enigmatic giant bird from the upper Eocene of England
- Source :
- Geological Magazine. 158:1129-1134
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2021.
-
Abstract
- A large bone from the upper Eocene Totland Bay Formation of Hordle Cliff (Hampshire), originally described by Seeley (1866) as Macrornis tanaupus and interpreted by him as belonging to a ‘large Struthious bird’, is redescribed and illustrated for the first time. It is not a reptile bone, as previously suggested, but the proximal part of a left avian tibiotarsus. A mass estimate of 43 kg, comparable to that of an emu, suggests that it was flightless. A precise identification is difficult because of the incompleteness of the specimen, and Macrornis tanaupus should probably be considered as a nomen dubium. We exclude Seeley’s interpretation as a ratite, as well as previous attributions to gastornithids. We tentatively suggest that the specimen may belong to a phorusrhacid, which would extend the stratigraphic record of this group in Europe by a few million years. The presence of a large terrestrial bird in the upper Eocene of Europe may have a bearing on the interpretation of enigmatic footprints of very large birds from the upper Eocene Paris gypsum.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
biology
Tibiotarsus
Geology
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
biology.organism_classification
01 natural sciences
Nomen dubium
Paleontology
Group (stratigraphy)
Upper eocene
Cliff
Bay
Ratite
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14695081 and 00167568
- Volume :
- 158
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geological Magazine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........a9cf3fed48b60303c1a49388aa359903