Fossils reveal an early Miocene presence of the aberrant gruiform Aves: Aptornithidae in New Zealand

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dc.contributor.authorWorthy, Trevor Henryen
dc.contributor.authorTennyson, Alan J. D.en
dc.contributor.authorScofield, Richard Paulen
dc.contributor.schoolSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciencesen
dc.date.issued2011en
dc.description.abstractA member of the New Zealand endemic family (Aves: Aptornithidae) is described from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand. The new species, based on two thoracic vertebrae, is provisionally referred to the highly distinctive Late Pleistocene–Holocene extinct genus Aptornis Mantell, 1848 (in Quart J Geol Soc Lond 4:225–238, 1848). It differs from both Recent species by slightly smaller size, greater pneumaticity of the corpus vertebrae and differences of the processus spinosus and processus transversi. We refer a distal femur, another vertebral fragment, a phalange and tentatively a tibial fragment, also from the St Bathans Fauna, to this new taxon.en
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityTrevor H. Worthy, Alan J. D. Tennyson, R. Paul Scofielden
dc.identifier.citationJournal fur Ornithologie, 2011; 152(3):669-680en
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10336-011-0649-6en
dc.identifier.issn0021-8375en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/75265
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherBlackwell Wissenschafts-Verlagen
dc.rights© Dt. Ornithologen-Gesellschafte. V. 2011en
dc.subjectAptornis; Aptornithidae; Early Miocene; Bannockburn Formation; New Zealanden
dc.titleFossils reveal an early Miocene presence of the aberrant gruiform Aves: Aptornithidae in New Zealanden
dc.typeJournal articleen

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