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A Giant Ostrich from the Lower Pleistocene Nihewan Formation of North China, with a Review of the Fossil Ostriches of China
- Source :
- Diversity, Vol 13, Iss 47, p 47 (2021), Buffetaut, E & Angst, D 2021, ' A Giant Ostrich from the Lower Pleistocene Nihewan Formation of North China, with a Review of the Fossil Ostriches of China ', Diversity, vol. 13, no. 2, 47, pp. 1-12 . https://doi.org/10.3390/d13020047
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2021.
-
Abstract
- A large incomplete ostrich femur from the Lower Pleistocene of North China, kept at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), is described. It was found by Father Emile Licent in 1925 in the Nihewan Formation (dated at about 1.8 Ma) of Hebei Province. On the basis of the minimum circumference of the shaft, a mass of 300 kg, twice that of a modern ostrich, was obtained. The bone is remarkably robust, more so than the femur of the more recent, Late Pleistocene, Struthio anderssoni from China, and resembles in that regard Pachystruthio Kretzoi, 1954, a genus known from the Lower Pleistocene of Hungary, Georgia and the Crimea, to which the Nihewan specimen is referred, as Pachystruthio indet. This find testifies to the wide geographical distribution of very massive ostriches in the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia. The giant ostrich from Nihewan was contemporaneous with the early hominins who inhabited that region in the Early Pleistocene.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
China
Early Pleistocene
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ecology
biology
Pleistocene
Ecological Modeling
North china
biology.organism_classification
01 natural sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
Archaeology
Nihewan
Geography
lcsh:Biology (General)
Genus
ostrich
femur
lcsh:QH301-705.5
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Struthio
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14242818
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 47
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Diversity
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a79161b2804509bf750be4e6478632b